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“Oh, Stop it; Stop it!” 





PZl 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

JUL 5 1904 

CoD.vrl^ht Entry 

0 jf- 

CLAS» ft- XXo. No. 

5 S' q / 

COPY B* 


sr 


Copyright, 1904, 

By George W. Jacobs & Co. 
Published, June^ ig04> 


‘ C,<', 




I i € < 

C < 

^ I- < 


CONTENTS 


I. 

A Runaway 

. 

. 

7 

II. 

The Secret 



25 

III. 

A Next-Door Neighbor . 



43 

IV. 

Old Miss Marvin . 



63 

V. 

Liz Bess Lost . 



83 

VI. 

Looking for the Gnome . 



103 

VII. 

Making Up . . . 



123 

VIII. 

The Picnic 



141 

IX. 

In Trouble 



155 

X. 

Nannie's Visit to Lynn . 



175 

XL 

Poor Jim .... 



197 

XII. 

Lynn’s Home-Coming 


. 

217 


























ILLUSTRATIONS 


‘‘ Oh, Stop it, stop it ! ” . . , Frontispiece 

Jennie managed as Nannie had done . Facing page 50 




Nannie finished hers first 
“Help! Help! Oh! Oh!” 
“ Is Miss Marvin at home ? ” 


“ 94 ' 

“ 148^ 
“ 226 

























CHAPTER I 
A Runaway 

The morning sun streamed full through the 
window of the room where JS’annie was trying to 
wink open her sleepy eyes. It was such a very 
bright sun that the eyes were not long in show- 
ing how blue they were under their curling 
lashes. Nannie lay staring at the dancing sun- 
beams for fully ten minutes before she decided to 
get up. Then her attention was attracted by a 
wily spidfer which was spinning a web directly 
over her bed. “ Suppose he should edge a little 
further this way and drop down all of a sudden 
right on my nose, and fasten his thread there,” 
thought the little girl. “My! I’d be scared. 
What funny legs he has and how easy it is for 
him to swing across that way. Oh, I do believe 
he is getting ready to drop 1 ” And at this pros- 
pect she popped up and scrambled out of bed, 
not willing to take any chances of being made a 
convenience by the spider. 


lO 


Little Sister Anne 


It was still early, Nannie discovered, for the 
milkman was rattling his cans outside, and there 
was a smell of smoke from the newly-kindled 
kitchen fire. “ If it hadn’t been for the spider,” 
Nannie told herself, “I might have stayed in 
bed, but I wasn’t going to have that horrid 
creature fasten his line to my nose. I wonder if 
Biggy is up. No, he isn’t ; he’d be whistling if 
he were,” she concluded, for there came no sound 
from her brother’s room next to hers. “ I know 
what I’ll do,” she said to herself after a pause in 
which she was busy with her shoes and stock- 
ings ; “I’ll go down and get ’Liza Jane to let me 
wheel the baby.” This was one of Nannie’s 
favorite occupations. She dearly loved babies 
and thought it a great privilege to be allowed to 
wheel fat, little Bobby Bancroft. Nannie was on 
intimate terms with ’Liza Jane, Bobby’s nurse, 
and when things did not go exactly to suit her at 
home she would slip out the gate and scam- 
per around the corner to find ’Liza Jane and 
Bobby. 

On this particular morning, after dressing 
herself, she stole quietly down-stairs and in an- 
other moment the gate had clicked behind her 


A Runaway ii 

and she was out of sight of her own front door. 
Yes, there was ’Liza Jane in her striped calico 
gown, and there, too, was Bobby, goo-gooing and 
chuckling to his pink-socked feet which he was 
kicking out from under his carriage blanket. 

“ Hallo ! ” cried Nannie. 

“ Hallo yerself,” answered ’Liza J ane. “ You’re 
up bright and airly, Nannie Hollis. I’ve but 
just come down with the baby.” 

“ Yes, a spider got me up,” Nannie replied 
carelessly. “ May I wheel the baby, ’Liza 
Jane ? ” 

“To be sure, only don’t take him off the 
square. Don’t try to cross over with him.” 

“I’ll just go ’round and ’round,” returned 
Nannie ; “ that will be easy. Then I won’t have to 
turn around or anything.” 

“I’ll slip inside then,” said ’Liza Jane, “and 
help Ellen with the breakfast. She’s a tooth 
that aches her turrible. She was awake half the 
night with it. Mind what I say, now, about cross- 
ing the street. There’s not another child I’d trust 
the baby with,” she added as she went in. 

Nannie assumed a very important air at hear- 
ing this. ’Liza Jane did not usually go in and 


12 


Little Sister Anne 


leave the baby entirely in her charge, and at this 
confidence shown in her Nannie felt much older. 
She pushed the baby carriage soberly along, 
stopping now and then to tuck in the covers, to 
put on the baby’s sock which he delighted in 
throwing away, and to talk to Bobby in baby 
talk. This had gone on for some time when 
Nannie began to wonder what time it was. 
She was hungry and wanted her breakfast. 
Bobby, too, was getting fretful. Nannie was 
not used to taking full charge, for heretofore 
she had made a few turns with the carriage and 
then ’Liza Jane had taken her turn. Besides, 
’Liza Jane was very talkative and made things 
lively. “I wish you could talk, Bobby,” said 
Nannie. But Bobby only stuck out his under lip 
and said, “Ba-ba;” then he lifted one fat leg, 
jerked off a pink sock and threw it away, look- 
ing after it stolidly. 

“ Dear me, I wish you wouldn’t do that,” said 
Nannie, letting go of the carriage and coming 
around to pick up the sock. “ That’s the 
dozenth time you’ve done it, I do believe. You 
must keep your socks on. Do you hear, Bobby 
Bancroft ? ” The sock had fallen over the edge 


13 


A Runaway 

of the curb and was lying almost in the gutter 
not far from Nannie’s front door. The street 
here made quite an incline, and Nannie, after 
shaking the sock vigorously, turned to see that 
the carriage was running of its own accord faster 
and faster down the street. She darted forward 
to catch it, but it seemed bent upon getting away 
from her, for it went on so rapidly that she could 
not get hold of it. Suppose it should overturn 
when it reached the corner, and Bobby be thrown 
out. He might be injured or even killed. The 
horror of the thought overcame her and she 
screamed out, “ Oh, stop it, stop it I Please, 
please stop it ! Oh, please, somebody, some- 
body ! ” 

The carriage was now rattling on past her own 
home. Another moment and the corner would 
be reached, but Nannie’s wild cries had been 
heard by some one sitting on the porch, and 
when her terror had reached its height, down the 
steps came Big Brother with flying leaps. He 
took in the situation and as the carriage was 
about to go whizzing b}^ he placed himself in 
front of it, caught it and held it still. 

Then Nannie, trembling with fright and in 


Little Sister Anne 


H 

floods of tears, came up. “ O, Biggy, Biggy,” 
she cried, “I’m so glad you were there. Is 
Bobby all right ? Oh dear, I was so scared.” 

“What’s all this about?” asked her brother. 
“ What are you doing running off with the 
Bancrofts’ baby ? It is the Bancrofts’, isn’t 
it?” 

“ Yes,” said Nannie with a long sigh of relief. 
“Only I wasn’t running away with him ; he was 
running away from me, or at least the carriage 
was. I forgot about its being so hilly right here 
and he would pull off his socks, you know.” 

“ I don’t know ; but what I do want to know 
is when you turned nurse-girl. How much do 
they pay you a week, and are you doing it on 
the sly, or does mother know it, and what are 
you doing it for ? Don’t imagine I shall let you 
help me through college by hiring yourself out, 
Anne Hollis.” 

“ O, Biggy, stop making fun. You know it 
isn’t that way at all. I often go and help ’Liza 
Jane with the baby just ’cause I love it.” 

“Where’s ’Liza Jane that she isn’t here to take 
care of the kid? Is it her day off? Has she 
gone to a funeral ? ” 


A Runaway 15 

“No, Biggy. I wish you’d stop talking so. 
She let me do it all by myself. I’ve often begged 
her to let me and this morning Ellen, the cook, 
had the toothache, and ’Liza Jane wanted to help 
her, so she let me take the baby all by myself.” 

“ It’s a funny ambition,” returned her brother. 
“ I shouldn’t care for the sport myself, but there’s 
no knowing what a girl will do. How long have 
you been at it ? ” 

“I don’t know. I think it must have been 
right early. The milkman was just coming 
along.” 

“ Six o’clock and now it’s half-past seven. Do 
you mean you’ve been rushing the kid around 
the block for an hour and a half? Gee! I’d 
rather saw wood. Isn’t it time he was homo 
again in ’Liza Jane’s tender care ? ” 

“Yes, I suppose so.” 

“ I’m almost afraid to let you go by yourself, 
but I’m blest if I’ll be seen wheeling that thing. 
Come along, I’ll go with you, if you will do the 
nurse-maid act. To think I should have a sister 
with such ambitions. See here. Nanny-goat, is 
this your regular racket ? Do you rise at the 
crowing of the cock each morning and pursue 


i6 Little Sister Anne 

this strange hobby ? Hallo ! what’s the matter 
with the kid ? Is he going to have a fit of apo- 
plexy ? ” 

“ Ho,” returned Hannie ; “ he’s only red in the 
face because he’s mad. He doesn’t like me to 
stop still with him.” 

‘‘ Gracious ! I suppose he liked that wild chase 
down hill. Are you going to tell Martha Jane 
about it ? ” 

“You mean ’Liza Jane,” corrected Hannie. 
“ I don’t know. Do you think I ought to ? It 
wasn’t really my fault, you know, because he 
would throw away the sock and I had to pick 
it up.” 

“Your eyes are pretty red,” said her brother, 
looking at her critically. 

“Oh, are they? I wonder if ’Liza Jane will 
think anything is wrong. I wish ” 

“ What do you wish ? ” 

“ That you’d take him home. It’s just around 
the corner, you know.” 

“ Great Scott 1 What a spectacle I’d be for the 
boys if they should see me. Ho, Han, I am fond 
of you, I confess, but there are limits to a fellow’s 
good nature, and I must firmly but kindly de- 


17 


A Runaway 

dine to do that. I’ll go with you, though, as I 
promised, and I’ll hurry you off as soon as you’ve 
delivered up Bobby to his keeper.” 

“ Oh, thank you, Biggy ; that will be all right. 
I’ll go right on now.” 

“ You must promise me, though, that you’ll give 
up this craze of yours, this mad fancy for taking 
care of the neighbors’ kids. There is no telling 
where it will lead you. You’ll be wanting to 
adopt an orphan asylum when you’re grown, or 
you’ll turn into a regular old woman who lives in 
a shoe. This sort of thing must be nipped in the 
bud. Don’t do it again.” 

“ I don’t believe I shall,” returned Kannie. 
‘‘I’ve had such a scare. You’re awfully good to 
go with me.” 

“ Oh, that’s all right.” 

He strode along by her side, his hands in his 
pockets. Hannie wheeled Bobby around to his 
own front door. ’Liza Jane was on the lookout 
for her. “I thought ye’d run off with me 
baby,” she said. “ His mother’s been wonderin> 
what had become of him, and I was just on the 
p’int av huntin’ ye up. He’s all right, is he ? ” 

“Eight as a trivet,” replied Hannie’s brother. 


i8 


Little Sister Anne 


“ He’s had the time of his life. Come, Han, 
breakfast is ready. Don’t stop to talk.” And 
grabbing her by the arm he hurried her off be- 
fore ’Liza Jane could get in another word. 

“ That was good of you, Biggy,” said Hannie 
breathlessly when they had almost reached their 
own door. “ I’ll do something for you some day 
to make up for it.” 

“ See that you do,” returned her brother, laugh- 
ing. “ Suppose I had told on you and ’Liza Jane 
had flown at you tooth and nail. Where would 
you be now ? ” 

“ Oh, she wouldn’t.” 

“Wouldn’t she? That’s all you know about 
it. You’ve never seen her with her Irish up and 
I have. It’s something terrible.” 

“ What is ‘ Irish up ’ ? ” asked Nannie with a 
puzzled look. 

Her brother laughed. “ You’d better not find 
out if you want a hair of your head left.” He 
tousled her brown locks affectionately and Nannie 
concluded that it must be something too dreadful 
to talk about. 

Her brother Lynn was twice as old as she and 
from her babyhood she had called him Biggy, 


A Runaway 19 

her first attempt to say big brother. She had 
two sisters: Louise, who was eighteen years 
old, quite grown up, and already talking about 
young ladyish things; and Elizabeth, who was 
four years younger than Kannie. She was called 
Liz Bess by nearly every one, as that was the 
nearest approach that she could make to pro- 
nouncing her own name. 

Louise was on the porch when Lynn and I^'an- 
nie came up. ‘‘Don’t tell,” whispered Nannie 
hurriedly. 

“ I won’t,” returned her brother. “ Hallo, 
Lou,” he exclaimed ; “ breakfast must be ready 
or you wouldn’t be down.” 

“ It ought to be ready, but it isn’t,” said Louise 
in an aggrieved voice. “ Polly is so slow.” 

“Why don’t you go and help her?” asked 
Lynn. 

“ Because I don’t choose to. Why don’t you 
go yourself ? ” 

“ Because I’m no Miss Betty to go around with 
a dish-rag pinned to the tail of my coat,” re- 
torted Lynn, balancing himself on the railing. 

“Father was looking for you. Where were 
you ? ” asked Louise with severity. 


20 


Little Sister Anne 


“I’ll tell him when he wishes to know,” re- 
plied Lynn airily. 

Louise put her arm around IS'annie. “ Come, 
little sister, let’s go in and have breakfast and 
leave this cross old thing.” 

Nannie edged away a little. She remembered 
that Lynn had not told on her and she intended 
to show her appreciation. “He isn’t cross, 
Louie,” she declared; “he’s just, oh, you know, 
he’s just a boy.” 

Lynn laughed. “That’s right, Nancy Lee. 
Stand up for your big brother, and don’t let any 
one run him down. Kerne mber what I told 
you.” 

Nannie looked alarmed as Louise inquired 
curiously, “ What was it ? ” 

“ That’s for me to know and you to find out,” 
was Lynn’s answer as he walked past her into 
the house. 

“He is perfectly horrid,” said Louie, loud 
enough for Lynn to hear. “ Of all rude, hobble- 
dehoy creatures commend me to a boy of six- 
teen.” 

“ Sweet sixteen,” simpered Lynn over his 
shoulder. “ You forget that dear delightful age. 


A Runaway 21 

I am a bud, dear, only a sweet little bud. You 
don’t know how I may blossom out. If you 
want any waffles, Nan, you’d better hurry or I’ll 
eat them all up. You know after that interest- 
ing adventure of ours this morning I am mon- 
strously hungry.” 

“ What Avas the adventure ? ” whispered Louie. 

“ I am dying to know. Tell me, Nannie, there’s 
a darling.” But Nannie ran on into the dining- 
room and Avas seated by her brother’s side at the 
table before Louise could overtake her. 

“Were you looking for me, sir?” Lynn Avas 
saying to his father. 

“Yes,” Avas the reply. “I wished to tell you • 
not to go off Avithout my seeing you. I shall 
have to send you to Price’s this morning.” 
Lynn gave a little rebellious jerk of the head but 
said nothing. 

“ Where were you ? ” asked his father. 

“I? Oh, I Avas ” Nannie gave his arm a 

little frightened pressure. “I Avas just around 
the corner,” he said indifferently. “ I Avas look- 
ing out for the interests of the Bancroft baby. 
My, but he’s a bhster. Such arms and legs. 
Looks like a prize-fighter. I should think he 


22 Little Sister Anne 

could down his nurse — what’s her name ? — ’Liza 
Jane, any day.” 

Mrs. Hollis looked up surprised. “What do 
you know about ’Liza Jane and the Bancroft 
baby ? ” she asked. 

“ Oh, I know all about ’em,” returned Lynn. 
“ Ask Han if I don’t.” 

Hannie turned very red. “You see,” she 
stammered. “Why, you know, I was just — I 
was just wheeling Bobby — ^just wheeling him, 
you know and ” 

“ And I objected to a sister of mine hiring out 
as a nurse-maid,” Lynn put in, “ so I protested 
and saw to it that she returned that prize calf to 
his nurse, and then I brought her home with me. 
That’s all there is to it. Han and I simply went 
around to the Bancrofts’ and back again. Like 
the king of France, I marched her up the hill and 
then marched down again.” 

“Oh, is that all?” said Louie. “You made 
out it was some mighty adventure.” 

Lynn looked at her with a half smile. “ Well, 
if you could see that youngster’s fists, and if you 
could have heard him howl, you’d have thought 
it an adventure.” He gave Hannie a little kick 


A Runaway 23 

under the table. “And there was ’Liza Jane 
too,” he added. 

“ What about her ? ” asked Louise. 

“ Oh, nothing ; I just said there was ’Liza Jane. 
She was there, you know, when we took the 
baby back.” 

“You are the most provoking boy,” said 
Louise, but her father laughed. 

“ Don’t forget that I want you,” he said. “ Be 
at the office about nine with the horse and 
buggy, unless you’d rather go horseback.” 

“ I^’o, thank you,” returned Lynn ; “ I’ll go in 
the buggy, and I’ll take Kan for company.” 

“ Oh, will you ? O, Biggy I ” Kannie dropped 
her bit of waffie and gave her brother a mighty hug. 

“Here, here,” he cried, “I don’t want your 
sirupy fingers clawing my hair. That’s a girl all 
over. A boy would have said, ‘Big, you’re a 
brick,’ and he’d have gone on eating his waffie.” 

Kannie meekly returned to her breakfast. 
She gave her mother a questioning look. The 
ride to Price’s was a long one and the child was 
not quite sure whether she would be allowed to 
go ; but the answering smile she received set her 
mind at rest on that score. 



I 




• ^ 






CHAPTER II 
The Secret 

No sooner had Mr. Hollis left the house and 
it was settled that Lynn and Nannie were to 
make their expedition together than Louise be- 
gan to protest. 

“ Botheration ! ’’ she exclaimed. “ I don’t see, 
mamma, why Lynn has to take the buggy. I 
was going to take Myra Ford out for a drive this 
morning.” 

“ Did you have an engagement with her ? ” 
Mrs. Hollis asked. 

“ No, mamma, but I had made all my arrange- 
ments.” 

“ Oh, well, my dear, you can very easily put 
off your drive. There will be plenty of good 
days coming, and your father wants Lynn spe- 
cially to go on an errand of importance.” 

“ Can’t you go on horseback, Lynn ? ” asked 
Louise. 

“ I can, but I’m not going to. You’re leav- 


28 Little Sister Anne 

ing Nan out of the question entirely,” he re- 
turned. 

“ Oh well, it won’t make any difference to her, 
will it, Nannie? You stay at home and I’ll 
make your doll a new hat.” 

This was an inducement, but it was not as at- 
tractive as that which Lynn had to offer, so 
Nannie shook her head. “ I’d rather go with 
Biggy,” she said. 

“ You mean little thing,” retorted Louise. “ I 
think you might give up to me. I don’t believe 
you love me one bit.” 

Nannie looked distressed, for there was no 
surer way of appealing to her than through her 
affections, a fact which Louise well knew. How- 
ever, Lynn came to her rescue, saying : “ Whether 
she goes with me or not I am going to take the 
buggy just the same. Father said I might and 
I intend to, so that settles it. I’ll be around 
about quarter before nine, Nan, and you be all 
ready.” 

As he walked out of the room Louise beckoned 
to Nannie. “Come with me into the garden,” 
she whispered, and Nannie obeyed. “ I’ll make 
you the hat,” Louise told her, “ if you will run 


The Secret 


29 

after Lynn and coax him to take Rob Roy and 
go horseback ; then I can have Sandy and the 
buggy. Lynn always loves to oppose me for 
some reason, but he’ll do that for you. Do go, 
there’s a good child. I think you might be ac- 
commodating. I am the eldest, too, and a young 
lady, so of course you and Lynn ought to give up 
to me.” 

This was unanswerable, so I^’annie gave a re- 
luctant promise. “ Here comes Biggy, now,” 
she said ; “ he’s forgotten something, I suppose.” 
She ran out to meet her brother, and Louise from 
the vine-covered porch watched the two. She 
saw Lynn shake his head decidedly and heard 
him say : “ Louie put you up to that I know. 
I’m not going to do it. I’ve two or three scores 
to pay back, and whether you go or not I shall 
take the buggy. If you don’t go I can ask Jim 
Mason ; I reckon he’ll not refuse.” 

“ Oh, I’ll go,” returned Nannie hastily. 

Lynn laughed and gave her hair a tweak. “ I 
didn’t believe you would go back on me,” he 
said. “ You go get ready and I’ll be here in fif- 
teen minutes.” 

Nannie returned slowly to the porch. “He 


30 Little Sister Anne 

wouldn’t do it,” she told her sister. “ I did try, 
Louie.” 

Yes, I know you did. I heard what he said. 
You did your part all right and Genevieve shall 
have her hat. Who was it Lynn said would go 
with him if you didn’t ? ” 

“Jim Mason,” said Nannie slowly, “and you 
know mamma and papa just hate to have Biggy 
with him, so I couldn’t, you know.” 

“ Yes, I know. Lynn is dreadful. I don’t see 
why he will keep up with that Mason boy ; he’ll 
be his destruction yet.” 

“ Oh, Louie, what do you mean ? Will he do 
anything dreadful to him ? ” 

“ Dreadful enough,” returned her sister, walk- 
ing away. 

Nannie stood pondering over this state of 
things. “ Jim Mason is not a good boy,” she 
had heard her mother say, but that his depths of 
depravity were so great that he would do Lynn 
mortal injury was worse than she had imagined. 
Clearly it was her sisterly duty to defend Biggy 
from Jim’s attacks. “ I’d go now even if I didn’t 
want to,” she told herself as she saw Lynn and 
the buggy in the distance. She and her brother 


The Secret 


31 

were great chums. For some reason there was 
always more or less friction between Lynn and 
Louise. Each seemed to rub the other the wrong 
way. Lynn was at that difficult age which can- 
not stand interference and Louise, he said, was 
always trying to boss him. It was true that 
Louise was quite ready to give advice and felt 
the importance of her eighteen years more than 
was pleasant to Lynn, so the two were contin- 
ually sparring though really very fond of each 
other. 

“ Climb up here, Nan,” said Lynn, as he 
stopped before the door. ‘‘There, are you all 
right? You look as sober as a judge. Has 
Louie been scolding you ? ” 

“ Oh, no,” Nannie was quick to reply. “ She 
was really very nice, Biggy, and she is going to 
make Genevieve a hat after all.” 

“ That is good. Y ou may hold the horse 
while I go in and get father’s directions.” 

They stopped before a square brick building in 
front of which was a little triangle of green 
grass. Mr. Hollis occupied one of the offices in 
the building. Nannie could look in through the 
open window and see her father’s desk littered 


Little Sister Anne 


32 

with papers, and she noticed several men talking 
and gesticulating. She watched one man in par- 
ticular who had a way of pounding the palm of 
one hand with the closed fist of the other. She 
wondered about what he could be talking to be 
so excited. She watched him till her brother 
came out with two or three papers in his hand. 
These he put carefully in his pocket before he 
stepped into the buggy. 

“ What was that man talking about ? ” asked 
Nannie, 

‘‘ What man?” said Lynn, as he took the reins. 

“ The one who was doing so.” Nannie 
pounded her palm with her small fist. 

Lynn laughed. “ Oh, he was talking about — 
let me see — about custom-house duties, I be- 
lieve.” 

Nannie thought that was a very uninteresting 
subject to get so excited over, but she remem- 
bered that men usually did talk about very stupid 
things and she was not surprised. Her thoughts 
went back to Jim Mason. “Biggy,” she said, 
“ what makes you like Jim Mason ? ” 

Lynn looked straight ahead and said nothing 
for a few moments. “ What do you know about 


The Secret 


33 

Jim?” he asked presently. “He’s the jolliest 
fellow I know. He’s more fun than a barrel of 
monkeys. I don’t see why every one wants to be 
down on him.” 

“ Did he ever try to do anything dreadful to 
you ? ” asked Hannie, rather puzzled how to 
make these statements agree with what her sister 
had said. 

“Did he ever try to do anything dreadful? 
Ho. Who’s been stuffing you ? ” 

Hannie hesitated. “I just thought maybe,” • 
she stammered. 

“Oh, well, don’t you believe all you hear. 
He’s never hurt me yet. He’d do anything for 
me.” Lynn emphasized his remarks by giving 
the horse a flick with the whip and Sandy started 
off at a smarter pace. They were well on the 
outskirts of the town by this time and the houses 
along the way were few and far between. 

Suddenly some one shouted from a fence cor- 
ner: “Hallo! Hold up, Lynn I Where are you 
going so fast ? ” Lynn drew rein to see Jim 
Mason himself vaulting the fence. 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Hannie, “ what are you go- 
ing to do, Biggy ? ” 


Little Sister Anne 


34 

Lynn did not answer her, but called out to 
Jim : “ Hallo ! What are you doing out here ? ” 

“ Kothing much,” replied Jim, coming up to 
the side of the buggy. “ I was looking for some- 
thing in the woods. Where are you going ? ” 

“ Out to Price’s on an errand for father.” 

Jim peered inside the buggy. “ Koom for me 
in there ? Heigho, Han, is that you ? Couldn’t 
you squeeze in between me and Lynn ? or I could 
take her in my lap, couldn’t I, Lynn ? ” 

Lynn looked confused. “ Oh, you don’t want 
to go,” he said boyishly. “ It won’t be any 
special fun just to drive out there and back.” 

“ Allee samee I want to go. You won’t care, 
will you, Hannie ? ” 

Hannie did care very much, but how to say so 
and be polite at the same time was a problem to 
her. 

“There’s a jolly little store at Henderson’s 
corner,” Jim went on. “ I’ll tell you what we 
can do : we can stop there and get some cakes 
and candies and stuff and have a little picnic on 
the way back ; that would be jolly.” 

This did sound enticing and Hannie edged a 
little closer to her brother. Jim saw the move- 


The Secret 


35 

ment and took advantage of it by stepping into 
the buggy. “ Move over a little, Lynn,” he said. 
“ There we are. Plenty of room for three peo- 
ple of our size. We’re none of us heavy- 
weights.” 

Lynn drove on without a word. He looked 
rather glum, and from time to time cast an un- 
easy glance at Hannie who crowded as close to 
him as she could. Jim did not pay any attention 
to Lynn’s lack of sociability, but rattled on, mak- 
ing himself so agreeable and saying such funny 
things that before they had gone a quarter of a 
mile, all of the three were laughing and joking 
and having the best sort of time. J^^annie forgot 
entirely that she had ever thought Jim dreadful, 
and could not understand why any one should 
think so. 

The time went merrily till Price’s was reached 
and Lynn then delivered his papers. He did not 
tarry long, and as he came out he stuffed a roll 
of bills into his pocket. 

“ You’re wealthy,” said Jim with a chuckle. 

“Oh, no. Pm not. I’ve not a penny to my 
name and I shall not have till the first of the 
month when I get my allowance,” Lynn told 


Little Sister Anne 


36 

him. “ This is some money Mr. Price asked me 
to take to father. He said he had made a miscal- 
culation on the last lot of stuff he sold father and 
that when he came to settle up the account he 
found he had charged him four dollars too 
much.” 

“ He’s honest,” said Jim. “ He might have let 
it go and nobody would have been the wiser.” 

“ Yes, he is honest,” returned Lynn. 

“ Of course he is,” piped up Hannie ; “ father 
wouldn’t let him stay on that place if he 
weren’t.” 

Jim laughed and patted Nannie’s hand. “ You 
take it all in, don’t you, Nannie ? I say, Lynn, 
don’t let’s forget to stop at the corner.” 

At the corner was the little country store 
where all sorts of things were to be had. Nannie 
always liked to go in there, for it was like some 
sort of bazaar. On one side were shelves of gay 
calicoes and cretonnes, plain ginghams, cottons 
and flannels. There was also a glass case which 
covered all sorts of fancy articles, ribbons, and 
cheap jewelry. These Nannie liked to look at ; 
but the most interesting corner was that which 
held glass jars of striped candy and sour balls. 


The Secret 


37 

boxes of marshmallows, chocolates, and other 
delightful sweets, and tins of crackers of various 
kinds. There was no lack to choose from and 
Nannie was always ready to make a selection. 

Jim walked in and with an easy air made sev- 
eral purchases. It was but necessary for Nannie 
to say that she liked a thing for him to buy it. 
His last purchase was a package of cigarettes ; 
these were laid on top of the bundles and Jim 
asked : “ How much ? ” 

Ninety -four cents,” he was told. 

Jim put his hand first in one pocket and then 
in another. ^‘Botheration!” he exclaimed in a 
low tone to Lynn, “ IVe left my money at home 
in my other clothes. You’ll have to lend me 
some, Lynn.” 

“ I told you I hadn’t any,” replied Lynn, walk- 
ing toward the door. 

Jim followed him. Nannie watched them 
eagerly. It seemed to her a very embarrassing 
situation. She saw her brother shake his head 
several times to something upon which Jim 
insisted. Finally Jim frowned threateningly. 
Lynn turned very red, put his hand into his 
pocket, produced the roll of bills, drew forth a 


Little Sister Anne 


38 

dollar and gave it to Jim who turned and walked 
back to the counter. Nannie went out to her 
brother. “ O, Biggy,” she whispered, “was 
that father’s money ? ” 

“Don’t bother me,” replied Lynn crossly, 
bending down and seeming to attend to some 
part of the harness. 

Nannie climbed back into the buggy and sat 
silent and distressed till Jim came out, his arms 
piled up with bundles. He was livelier and more 
entertaining than ever on the homeward drive, 
though Nannie felt very uncomfortable; and 
when they stopped by the roadside to have their 
feast, it did not seem near so much of a treat as 
it had promised at first. Lynn ate scarcely any- 
thing, but when Jim offered him a cigarette he 
took it. Nannie opened her eyes and made a 
round 0 of her mouth. 

“ What’s the matter ? Do you object to smok- 
ing, Miss Hollis?” asked Jim with a twinkle in 
his eye. ^ 

“ No,” replied Nannie seriously, “ but father 
and mother don’t like Biggy to smoke cigar- 
ettes. Father says if he wishes to smoke 
cigars or a pipe when he’s older, he won’t 


The Secret 


39 

forbid it, but he thinks cigarettes are very bad 
for him.” 

“What a little preacher she is, isn’t she, 
Lynn ? ” said Jim with a mocking laugh. “ A 
regular Sunday-school girl. You can have 
church at home every day, can’t you ? ” 

Nannie bit her lip and felt very foolish, but 
Lynn spoke up : “ You let her alone, Jim. She’s 

all right.” He threw away the cigarette that he 
had lighted, and said to his sister, “That was 
all right. Nan.” 

“ Oh, I didn’t mean to poke fun,” said Jim, 
“but I know how you like to smoke, and it 
seemed funny, that was all. Don’t get mad over 
it, Lynn. You’re in a bad humor to-day, it 
seems to me. I am going to get out here. See 
you to-night.” He jumped out and with a wave 
of his hand left them. 

Nannie heaved a long sigh as Lynn turned the 
horse’s head toward the stable. “ We’ll not go 
around to the house,” he said. “ It is only a little 
way to walk and it’s more convenient to go this 
way. Did you have a good time. Nan ? ” 

“ Yes No Did you ? ” 

“ No, I didn’t,” snapped out Lynn. “ I say. 


40 


Little Sister Anne 


Nan, don’t say anything about Jim’s going ; it 
will only kick up a row, and you see how it was : 
we didn’t invite him ; he just would go ; that’s a 
way he has. You can’t shake him and somehow 
when you’re in his company you forget — lots of 
things.” Here Lynn’s face took bn a deep flush. 
“ And I say. Nan,” he went on hesitatingly, 
‘‘ don’t say anything about the feast and the — the 
money. I’ll make it all right with father.” 

“ Oh, it was father’s money. O Biggy ! ” 

“ Yes, but don’t you worry. You’ll keep the 
secret, won’t you, Nan ? Please, and I’ll make 
it all right. I swear I will, when I get my al- 
lowance. It will be the mischief to explain,” he 
said thoughtfully, “ but I’ll have to do it.” 

“ You mean-^oh yes, I see. If you wait till 
you get your allowance you can’t give father all 
the four dollars now, and you will have to explain 
Avhy you gave him only three. I say, Biggy.” 
She put a soft little hand on her brother’s arm. 

“ What ? I know I was a weak-minded chump 
to let him have it, and I ought to be ashamed of 
myself. Well, I am. I feel like the little end of 
nothing. What were you going to say, Nan?” 

“ I’ve a dollar in my bank.” 


The Secret 


41 

“ You don’t suppose I’d take your little sav- 
ings ? ” 

“Please, Biggy.” 

“ Nan, you’re a brick. I’d like to see Louie 
offer to get me out of a scrape. She’d glory in 
having me brought up standing. Well, I ought 
to be. It was a mighty wrong thing to do, and 
the more I think of it, the harder it seems to 
have to tell father. He will be so distressed.” 

“Then, oh please, Biggy. You can pay me 
back Monday when you get your money.” 

“ I’ll do it. Thank you. Nan. I don’t deserve 
to have such a sister. You’ll keep the secret, 
won’t you ? ” 

“ Ye-es,” said Nannie doubtfully. She wasn’t 
quite sure that she ought not to tell her mother 
about the events of the day. 

“ And you won’t tell that Jim was with us ? ” 

“ No-o, I’ll try not. I’ll run and get the bank 
now.” 

She hurried in at the back door, encountering 
no one, and coming back with her little bank, she 
unlocked it and poured the contents into her broth- 
er’s hand. There was a jingling collection of 
pennies, nickels, and dimes. Lynn looked at it 


42 


Little Sister Anne 


with a little smile. I’ll go right around to the 
office now,” he said. “ I’ll stop at the drug store 
and get a dollar bill for this change. It isn’t 
quite dinner time and I’ll catch father before he 
leaves. You are the best little sister a big fool- 
ish brother ever had.” He stooped and gave her 
a mighty hug, then left her. She went softly up- 
stairs with her empty bank in her hand, but with 
a heart very full of pity and love for her only 
brother. 



CHAPTER III 

A Next-Door Neighbor 


I*- 



CHAPTER III 
A Next-Door Neighbor 

Nothing further was said about the secret. 
Lynn promptly paid back his dollar to Nannie, 
giving her the jingling change which she pre- 
ferred, and in a short time Nannie had forgotten 
the incident. She was much interested in other 
matters just then. It so happened that there 
were no little girls of her own age in the imme- 
diate neighborhood, and she had always longed 
for a next-door neighbor who could come in and 
play with her. On one side of the Hollises’ lived 
a staid old couple, but on the other side was a 
vacant house with a large garden attached. The 
house was on the corner of the cross street, so 
the back of it was toward the side of the house 
where the Hollises lived. The garden was all 
overgrown with weeds, but the rose-bushes climbed 
the fence and peeped over into the Hollises’ gar- 
den, and, in the spring, the big apple tree show- 
ered petals down on Nannie’s head when she 


Little Sister Anne 


46 

looked through a knot-hole near it. Sometimes, 
too, a very adventurous plant would push a 
green stalk through a wide crevice, and decide 
to blossom on IS'annie’s side of the fence. Such 
visitors were always gladly welcomed by Nannie 
and Liz Bess who felt that they had more real 
character than the more orderly flowers in their 
own garden. 

It was one morning in July that the two dis- 
covered a brilliant nasturtium saucily nodding to 
them from a crack between two whitewashed 
boards. “Nannie, Nannie,” called Liz Bess, 
“come here. Come quick. Here’s somebody. 
It’s a new one, a next-door neighbor.” 

Nannie came over to where Liz Bess was squat- 
ting down before the flame-colored blossom. 
“ Oh, I know ; it’s a nasturchin,” she said. 

“ It isn’t nasty,” objected Liz Bess, putting one 
rosy finger delicately on the flower. 

“ I didn’t say so. I said nasturchin,” said Nan- 
nie with a strong accent on the last half of the 
word. 

“What is urchin?” asked Liz Bess. “What 
do zey call it nasty urchin for ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” Nannie answered, “ but 


A Next-Door Neighbor 47 

that’s the name somebody gave it. Maybe one 
was all dirty and muddy once and somebody 
called him that.” 

“I won’t call him zat,” declared Liz Bess. 
“ Zis one is weal clean. I’m going to call him 
Wed Cap like ze ’it tie faiwy in ze ’torwy.” 

“We’ll call this one Ked Cap,” Nannie agreed, 
sitting down on the ground. “ I’m going to see 
if there are any more,” she said, after a minute, 
jumping up and beginning to search around. 
“Here is a dirty little fellow,” she said pres- 
ently, “ but it isn’t a nastyurchin. I don’t know 
what it is, but, see, he has his feet all muddy. 
I am going to call him Filthy Lucre. He isn’t 
any relation to St. Luke, Liz Bess ; this one is 
Lucre, you know. I heard the minister say that 
word last Sunday. I don’t like him much, do 
you ? ” 

Liz Bess decided that she did not, and that he 
was not nice enough to play with Ked Cap. “ I 
am going to peep through the knot-hole,” said 
Nannie. “ Perhaps Ked Cap has some sisters and 
brothers on the other side, and he has run away 
from them.” 

“Wunned away?” asked Liz Bess, bending 


Little Sister Anne 


48 

toward the flower. But she speedily forgot to 
listen for an answer for Nannie called her in a 
very excited voice. She was stooping down, 
peering through the knot-hole which was just 
high enough from the ground for Liz Bess, stand- 
ing on tiptoe, to peep through. 

“Come here, Liz Bess, quick,” she called. 
“They’re moving in. The back door is open, 
and all the shutters, and there are some things 
in the back garden, a big dog-house and things. 
I wonder if Bed Cap knew they were coming, 
and that’s why he ran away.” 

Liz Bess applied her eye to the knot-hole with 
much interest. “ I hope zey isn’t any ogres,” she 
said in an anxious tone. 

Nannie laughed. “ Oh, ogres don’t live in 
houses, just plain houses; they live in castles 
and ” 

“ I see somebody,” Liz Bess broke in excitedly. 
“Nannie, Nannie, it’s a little girl and she’s 
coming down the garden.” 

“ Oh, I must see,” cried Nannie. “ O, Liz 
Bess, do get away.” 

“ No, no,” Liz Bess objected, “ I ’ants to see 
too.” 


A Next-Door Neighbor 49 

“ Then I’ll climb the fence and get up into the 
tree, I surely will,” said Nannie. ‘‘I wish 
were here to boost me up,” she added as 
she made futile efforts to clutch the top of the 
fence. “ Just let me have the knot-hole one 
second, Liz Bess, so I can put my toe in, and then 
you can have it all the time.” Liz Bess obediently 
gave place and Nannie succeeded in inserting an 
intrepid toe in the hole ; then by dint of much 
scraping of knees, she managed to scramble up 
on the fence and, working her way along 
toward the tree, she grasped that, crawled out 
on the overhanging bough, and established her- 
self in a well-known crotch. “ There,” she ex- 
claimed in a satisfied tone, “ I can see, and no- 
body can see me. I don’t see anybody, Liz 
Bess,” she called. But the words were hardly 
out of her mouth before a soft little laugh just 
below her made known the presence of some one, 
and looking down in a little confusion, she dis- 
covered a little girl of about her own age, peep- 
ing up at her. 

‘‘ Oh ! ” exclaimed Nannie, “ won’t jon come 
up ? Do you mind my sitting in your tree ? 
You see it has been so long since anybody lived 


50 


Little Sister Anne 


in this house that we have been climbing the tree 
all we wanted to.” 

“ 1 don’t mind. No, of course not,” returned 
the little girl. “ How did you get up ? ” 

“ I climbed up by the fence. There’s a knot- 
hole a little further down. Liz Bess,” she called, 
“ take your eye away, so the next-door neighbor 
can use the knot-hole for her foot.” Liz Bess 
hastily obeyed, being somewhat in fear of having 
a toe thrust into her shining blue eye, and the 
little girl next door managed much as Nannie 
had done. It was easier for her, however, for on 
her side the brace to which the boards were 
fastened gave her an easy foothold by which to 
creep along to the tree, so in a few minutes she 
was seated on a branch opposite Nannie, and a 
pair of gray eyes looked into a pair of blue 
ones. 

“ Isn’t this fun ? ” said Nannie. 

“ Lots of fun,” was the response. “ I’m 
awfully glad we have this tree. Have you any 
trees on your side ? ” The little girl craned her 
neck to see over into Nannie’s yard. 

“ Yes, we’ve a cherry-tree, and a peach-tree, 
and a horse-chestnut. I wonder why they call 


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Jennie Managed as Nannie Had Done 


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51 


A Next-Door Neighbor 

them horse-chestnuts. I never saw any horses 
eat them. I gave one to Sandy once and he 
wouldn’t touch it.” 

“ I don’t know why,” returned the other. 
“ Who is that cunning little girl down there ? ” 

‘‘ That’s my little sister Elizabeth. She calls 
herself Liz Bess ’cause she can’t say her right 
name, and so Ave call her that, too.” 

“ I wish I had a little sister,” said the neighbor. 
“ I haven’t anybody but just myself.” 

“Haven’t you? I have a brother and two 
sisters.” 

“ What is your name ? Mine is Jennie 
Temple.” 

“Mine is Hannie Hollis. My real name is 
Anne, but I don’t like it, and I am hardly ever 
called anything but Nannie. Sometimes my 
brother or my big sister calls me little sister 
Anne, and I don’t mind that so much.” 

“ It’s much better than Jane,” returned Jennie. 
“ I think Jane is terrible. It always makes me 
think of those goody-goody girls in those dread- 
ful little books my Aunt Maria gives me. She 
had a whole lot of them when she was a little 
girl, and on my birthday she always gives me 


52 


Little Sister Anne 


one of them, and I have to read it to jdease her. 
Do you know my Aunt Maria ? ” 

Nannie shook her head. “ I don^t think so.” 

“ She lives just up your street,” Jennie in- 
formed her. “ She is mamma’s aunt, and that is 
why we came to live in this house, so as to be 
near her. She is real old, and mamma thought 
we ought to bo nearer to her. She wears funny 
old-fashioned clothes, and has little gray curls on 
each side of her face. I know you must have 
seen her.” 

“You don’t mean old Miss Marvin, do you ? ” 
asked Nannie, interested. 

“ Yes, that is she. Aunt Maria Marvin.” 

“ Oh, then I’ve seen her, but I’ve never spoken 
to her.” 

“ She’s awfully strict, but she’s real kind, too,” 
Jennie went on. “ I am very fond of her, if she 
does give me Jane books. I suppose I shouldn’t 
mind about them so much if my name wasn’t 
Jane. I am named after my grandmother, 
mamma’s mother. Aunt Maria was her sister. 
If you had children, would you name them such 
horrid names as Jane and Maria? I wouldn’t. 
Whom were you named for?” 


A Next-Door Neighbor 53 

My grandmother, Anne Hollis, papa’s 
mother. I am the eighth in descent.” 

“ What does that mean ? ” asked Jennie. 

“I’m sure I don’t know,” returned Nannie 
carelessly ; “ that’s what papa always says when 
he tells any one my name, and so I say it 
too.” 

Jennie laughed. “I think it’s so nice to have 
you next door. It is a funny next door, too, for 
we don’t live on the same street. I wonder if 
we can see each other’s bedroom windows. 
Where is your room ? ” 

“ That one opening on the porch.” 

“ Oh, is it ? I am going to ask mamma to let 
me have the porch room so we can go out and 
talk across. I think it won’t be too far to make 
each other hear.” 

“ It is so nice to think you have really come,” 
said Nannie. “ I have been hoping for you for 
ever so long.” 

“ For me ? Why ? ” 

“ There aren’t any little girls around here, not 
any my age ; they are all either younger or older, 
and I have to go two or three squares when I 
want to play with any one I know. I hope you 


Little Sister Anne 


54 

like the same things that I do, for then we can 
have lovely times together.” 

“We’ll be sure to have lovely times. Til 
bring out my books and we can sit up here in the 
tree and read.” 

“ The Jane books ? ” 

Jennie laughed. “No, the nice story books. 
Don’t you love stories ? I do.” 

“ I like them, and I like dolls.” 

“ So do I, and I shall like to play in this gar- 
den.” 

“ So shall I,” returned Nannie readily. 

“ Oh, then we can have lots of fun, can’t we ? ” 

“ Indeed we can,” Nannie agreed. “ Do you 
like to make pretend ? I do. I like to pretend 
there are fairies and goblins and gnomes and all 
those things right here. Oh, do say you like to 
play that way.” 

“I never did very much,” Jennie admitted 
doubtfully, “ but I think I should like to. How 
do you begin ? ” 

“Why, let me see. There is a gnome that 
lives in this tree. I’ll show you where,” replied 
Nannie, leaning over and pointing out a hole in 
the rugged bark near Jennie’s foot, “ That goes 


A Next-Door Neighbor 55 

in quite deep. I don’t know how deep ; ’way in- 
side the tree, maybe. The gnome lives in there.” 

“ Did you ever see him ? ” asked Jennie in an 
awe-stricken whisper. 

“]^o,” returned Nannie doubtfully. ‘‘You 
know it is only make believe. I just pretend he 
is there and sometimes I really believe it. Maybe 
he is truly,” she added to increase her faith. 
“ I’d like to believe it, wouldn’t you ? ” 

“Yes, I should,” Jennie acknowledged, draw- 
ing up her feet as if she half expected the gnome 
might suddenly pounce out and tweak off her 
shoe. “ What does he do, Nannie ? ” 

“Oh, he — he takes care of the apples and 
makes them grow. He turns them in the night 
so they’ll get red all around.” 

“ I should think it would keep him busy,” Jen- 
nie remarked, glancing up at the many hard 
green little balls hanging from the tree. 

“ Oh, he has to turn each one only once,” said 
Nannie, easily finding a way out of the difficulty. 
“ He does it at night, you know. He sleeps all 
day.” 

“Then he is asleep now,” said Jennie, letting 
her foot dangle again. 


Little Sister Anne 


56 

“ Oh yes, of course.” 

“Has he a wife or any children?” asked 
J ennie. 

“I don’t know. I never heard of any baby 
gnomes, did you? They are always old and 
have long gray beards in the pictures. Wouldn’t 
it be fun to find a baby gnome to play with ? 
We could dress it up in a long cloak and a funny 
pointed cap.” 

Jennie laughed, and just then a little voice 
from under the tree piped out : “ I ’ants a ’ittle 
baby gnome. Get me one, Hannie.” Liz Bess 
had been listening attentively to this very inter- 
esting conversation. 

Nannie leaned over and looked down. “I 
can’t get one, Liz Bess. They are all asleep, and 
it would make them so cross if I should wake 
them up. They’re awake only in the night- 
time.” 

Liz Bess sat down again and began to suck 
her fingers as she always did when in deep 
thought. 

“ She wants a baby gnome,” whispered Nannie 
with a giggle. “ Isn’t she funny ? She really 
believes in them, you know.” 


57 


A Next-Door Neighbor 

“Ido, too — almost,” said Jennie. Then she 
added stoutly ; “ I do believe in fairies truly, and 
in Santa Claus.” 

“ Oh, of course, in fairies. I am not so sure 
about Santa Claus,” said Nannie dubiously. “ I 
try to believe in him, but it’s hard sometimes 
when there are so many make-believe Santa 
Clauses on the street corners and in the shops and 
everywhere. They couldn’t all be, you know, 
and when there are so many of them, it sort of 
makes you feel as if there couldn’t be any truly 
one.” 

“ There are make-believe fairies, too,” argued 
Jennie. “ I’ve seen them.” 

“ Only paper ones, not real, righty ones that 
could talk.” A fact which Jennie could not deny. 
“ There’s a fairy that lives in a little room in our 
house,” Nannie went on to say. “ There is a hole 
in the plaster, and that’s her door. She’s a very 
little fairy, oh teentsy weensy, and sometimes at 
night she comes out and gets on Pity’s back. 
Pity is our cat, and he takes her out here to see 
the gnomes.” 

“ What a funny name for a cat.” 

“ Biggy, my brother, named her,” Nannie 


Little Sister Anne 


58 

said. “ We had an old mother-cat named Lovey, 
and Pity is one of her kittens. So Biggy 
said pity was akin to love and so that would be 
a good name for the kitten. Biggy says such 
funny things sometimes. Oh me, there is Maggie 
coming to tell us to come to dinner.” 

‘•Oh, dear,” sighed Jennie, “then I have to 
go up to Aunt Maria’s. Mother said I’d better. 
She is too busy to have me around, she says, and 
she thinks I’d better go and stay with Aunt Maria 
this afternoon. Oh, dear ! ” 

“Do come and stay with me,” begged Nannie. 
“You can come to my house to dinner just as 
well as not. Is your mother going to your 
aunt’s ? ” 

“No, she said she couldn’t stop for a regular 
dinner, and she would just take a sandwich or 
something and I could go to Aunt Maria’s.” 

“ Does your Aunt Maria expect you ? ” Nannie 
was bound to find out all the pros and cons. 

“ No,” Jennie told her. “ She just said we were 
to come if we wished to, and mother said she 
wouldn’t, and I said maybe. Papa is going to 
take his dinner down-town and to-night we will 
have a hot supper. The maids are too busy to 


A Next-Door Neighbor 59 

stop to cook anything and we brought a lot of 
cold stuff.” 

“ Oh, well then, there won’t be any trouble. 
You go ask your mother if you can’t come and 
stay in my garden this afternoon, and if you 
can’t come to dinner at my house.” 

“ But what will your mother sa}^ ? ” 

“Oh, she’ll say, ‘Certainly.’ I’ll go speak to 
her while you go ask your mother about it ; then 
you come back to the fence and tell me, for our 
dinner is all ready.” 

Both children clambered down the tree and 
scampered off as fast as they could. Liz Bess had 
been ready to go in with Maggie at the first sum- 
mons. "Kannie found the family seated at din- 
ner. “Mamma,” she said breathlessly, “there’s 
an awfully nice little girl moving into the house 
at the corner; her name is Jennie Temple, and 
they are going to have only sandwiches for din- 
ner. Mayn’t she come in here and take dinner 
with us and stay and play in the garden this 
afternoon ? ” 

“ Why, yes,” said Mr. Hollis, looking up from 
his soup. “I forgot to tell you, my dear, that 
Frank Temple is to be our neighbor. You’d bet- 


6o 


Little Sister Anne 


ter send and ask his wife and little girl to come 
in to dine with us. No doubt they are in too 
great confusion to have a comfortable meal.” 

“ Mrs. Temple won’t come, I know,” said Nan- 
nie, for she wouldn’t go to her Aunt Maria’s ; 
she’s too busy.” 

“ I can well imagine it,” said Mrs. Hollis. I’ll 
send her dinner in to her ; that will be best. Get 
a tray ready, Maggie. You may have the little 
girl here, of course. Go and tell her that papa 
and mamma will be very glad if she will come. 
I’ll send a message by Maggie, too. Hurry up, 
or dinner will be cold.” 

Nannie hurried off and was applying her eye 
to the knot-hole before Jennie appeared. “ You’re 
coming,” she called. ‘‘Papa and mamma say 
you must. Climb up quick, and I’ll help you 
down this side. What did your mother say ? ” 

“She said she thought I’d better not,” said 
Jennie slowly. “She said your mother would 
think it was an imposition.” 

“ Oh, but she doesn’t. She wants you and she’s 
sending some dinner to your mother, and she told 
Maggie to tell your mother that you were here 
at her invitation, so come right along.” 


A Next-Door Neighbor 6i 

Jennie considered this sufficient encouragement 
and was not long in climbing down J!^annie’s side 
of the fence ; and before many minutes the two 
little girls were seated at dinner. 



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CHAPTER IV 
Old Miss Marvin 

Then came a long summer afternoon in the 
garden where the two little girls became very 
well acquainted. There was less than a year’s 
difference in their ages and it seemed to ^N^annie 
that nothing could have been arranged more for- 
tunately for her than the coming of the Temples 
to the old house so long shut up. In fact, she 
and Jennie became such inseparable companions 
that a board was taken from the fence that they 
might go back and forth without the inconven- 
ience of going outside their gates. 

“ It will be a long time before our garden looks 
as nice as yours,” Jennie said that afternoon as 
she looked around at the orderly beds ; “ but 
papa says when the grass is cut and the fence 
whitewashed it will make all the difference in the 
world.” 

“ I think it is nice now,” Nannie declared. “ I 
like the long grass ; it is so nice to hide in. I’ll 


66 


Little Sister Anne 


tell you what let’s do; let’s take the dolls in 
there and hide them and we can pretend they are 
lost in the forest. You and I will hunt for them 
and rescue them from the wild beasts. There 
comes a dreadful beast now.” Pity was very 
soberly sauntering down the garden walk, show- 
ing no appearance of being anything but a very 
tame animal, but Nannie and Jennie snatched 
their dolls and, with many shrieks and screams, 
climbed the tree and scrambled down the other 
side, leaving Pity to gaze after them in mild 
amazement. 

“ If that tiger should come over here and find 
them it would be dreadful,” declared Nannie. 
“Let’s hide the littlest dolls, Jennie, and then 
maybe we shall truly have to hunt for them. 
We must be careful not to step on them,” she re- 
marked as they started out to stow away the 
dolls in nests in the long grass. 

“ You look for the one I hide, and I’ll look for 
the one you hide,” said Jennie. “Poor little 
things, it is terrible for them to be lost in the 
wilderness. Oh, Nannie, Nannie, here comes the 
tiger.” 

“ Where ? where ? ” cried Nannie. 


Old Miss Marvin 


67 


“ He is sitting on the fence.” 

A tiger sitting on a fence was too much for 
Nannie and she rolled over in the grass convulsed 
with laughter. “You ought not to say that,” 
she told Jennie ; ‘‘ you ought to say he is creep- 
ing along the jungle. Oh, we must find those 
poor children before he eats them up.” 

“We couldn’t very well find them after he’d 
eaten them up,” remarked Jennie in a matter-of- 
fact tone. At this Nannie laughed again, and 
the search proceeded amid many words of lam- 
entation, many false alarms, many supposed dan- 
gers. Pity, meanwhile, sat on the fence waving 
his tail and watching them with lazy indifference. 
His presence added to the reality of the dollies’ 
plight and they did not attempt to rout him. 

The play, however, did come to a dramatic 
close, but it was not Pity that ended it. Just as 
it seemed about time to discover the lost chil- 
dren, from out the Temples’ kitchen rushed a 
little Skye terrier who scampered down the yard, 
leaped upon Jennie with joyous barks, then went 
skirmishing through the long grass, and in a mo- 
ment he had one of the lost darlings by her 
frock. He gave two or three vicious shakes of 


68 


Little Sister Anne 


his head, then rushed off bearing the doll dang- 
ling bj the tail of her dress. 

‘‘ Oh, oh,” cried Nannie, “ a lion has found my 
darling child ! ” 

It’s my dog. Tatters,” panted Jennie as the 
two ran toward the house. “Tatters, Tatters, 
bad dog, come right here. Drop that.” But 
Tatters had no idea of dropping his plaything till 
he had tousled her well, and had led the two 
little girls a merry chase; then the dolly’s 
clothes were the worse for wear. The two chil- 
dren bore her back with many words of sympa- 
thy and endearment, both declaring that it was 
splendid. 

“Papa must have come,” Jennie explained. 
“ He was going to keep Tatters at the office to- 
day and bring him home when he came. Tatters 
isn’t much more than a puppy, and is so mischiev- 
ous. I’ve had a splendid time, Nannie, and I am 
so glad we are neighbors. I really think Tatters 
ought to be chained up in his dog-house to punish 
him for being so naughty. There’s his house 
down under that tree.” 

“It’s a big one for such a little dog,” said 
Nannie. 


Old Miss Marvin 


69 

“Yes, it belonged to our great big ITewfound- 
land. He died last year, but we kept his house, 
and when papa gave me Tatters he said he would 
have to use the same house. It gives him plenty 
of room.” 

“ I should think so ; but I wouldn’t chain him, 
Jennie; he was just playing and it made our 
play ever so much more exciting.” So Jennie 
gave Tatters a scolding which he pretended to 
understand, but which it is very doubtful that he 
did, and then Hannie went back home bearing 
the two dolls whose adventures had been much 
more serious than those which usually befell 
them. 

The two little girls spent most of their after- 
noons together after this, and generally preferred 
to play in one garden or the other ; but one day 
Jennie brought word that her Aunt Maria wished 
her to bring Hannie to take tea with her that 
afternoon. 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed ISTannie. She wasn’t sure 
that she wished to go, for she had her own ideas 
of Miss Marvin, and was not attracted to that 
lady. “I’ll go ask mamma,” she said doubt- 
fully. 


70 Little Sister Anne 

“ Tell her please to let you go,” Jennie called 
after her. 

“ I’ll not tell her any such thing,” Nannie said 
to herself, for I believe I’d rather stay at home.” 
She went to her mother’s room, and said in rather 
a spiritless way : “ Jennie has come over to ask 
me to go to her Aunt Maria’s to tea.” 

“Well,” responded Mrs. Hollis, “I see no ob- 
jection.” Then, seeing that Nannie stood still, 
she asked : “Don’t you care to go ? ” 

“ Oh, mamma, she’s so funny -looking, so — so 
yellow and dried up, and she wears such funny 
clothes.” 

“ Miss Marvin is a very fine woman, Nannie. 
Her dressing may be a little out-of-date, and she 
seems stiff and reserved, but she has a good 
heart. Every one in trouble goes to her. I 
think it was most kind of her to ask you to come 
to see her, and that you will not be sorry if you 
go. I am sure you will have a very interesting, 
pleasant time.” 

With this assurance Nannie went off, and 
returned to Jennie with more enthusiasm than 
she had at first shown. “ I may go,” she said. 
“What time shall I be ready ? ” 


Old Miss Marvin 


71 

“Aunt Maria said to come early. Between 
four and five o’clock mamma said would be the 
right time.” 

“ All right, I’ll be ready.” She paused a mo- 
ment. “ Do you want to go, J ennie ? ” she asked 
hesitatingly. 

“I? Oh, of course I do. We’ll have a real 
good time ; you’ll see.” 

This quite settled the matter, for, though 
Nannie did not doubt her mother’s word, she had 
discovered that the opinions of grown-ups do not 
always agree with those of children, and she was 
better satisfied now that she had Jennie’s ideas 
on the subject. 

It was a pleasantly warm afternoon ; therefore 
it seemed proper for the little girls to wear white 
frocks and their best hats. Nannie felt a little 
shy as Jennie lifted the heavy brass knocker on 
the big green door and let it fall with a bang. 
A gray-headed old colored woman, wearing a gay 
bandana head handkerchief, opened the door for 
them and they were ushered into the cool, still 
parlor. At first Nannie could not see what was 
in the darkened room, but by degrees her eyes 
became accustomed to the dimness and she saw 


Little Sister Anne 


72 

that the furniture was massive and old-fashioned. 
The chairs and the big sofa were covered with 
white linen slips, and the pictures, shrouded in 
white tarlatan, looked ghostly. On the mantel 
was a collection of stuffed birds in a glass case, 
and a big cabinet contained all sorts of queer 
things which Nannie thought she would like 
very much to examine at a nearer view. The 
two little girls sat talking in whispers, each on a 
stiff-backed chair, their feet not touching the 
floor by several inches. In a few minutes the 
old colored woman returned, bearing a tray upon 
which were two thin glasses filled with a red 
liquid, and a little plate of cakes. “ Miss M’ria 
be down torreckly,” she said as she passed the 
tray first to Nannie and then to Jennie. Nannie 
took one of the glasses gingerly and helped her- 
self to a small scalloped cake. She sipped the 
liquid with some hesitation, not knowing what it 
was, but it had a delicious taste of raspberry and 
was sweet, cool, and refreshing. “ What is it ? ” 
she whispered to Jennie when the old woman 
had left the room. 

“ It is raspberry vinegar,” Jennie told her. 
‘‘ Aunt Maria al ways has it. I love it, don’t you ? ” 


Old Miss Marvin 


73 


“ It’s mighty good,” Nannie replied. ‘‘ I never 
tasted any before.” 

“ Oh, didn’t you ? Aunt Maria always gives 
it to me when I come, ’cause she knows I 
love it.” 

They had just finished the last drop of the 
beverage when Miss Marvin came in. She wore 
an old-fashioned purple and white muslin gown, 
made open at the throat. A soft white necker- 
chief was folded inside. On her hands she had 
lace mitts, and on her head a little cap trimmed 
with purple ribbons. Nannie liked her better 
without her bonnet ; she did not look so severe 
in the little white cap. 

“Well, my dears,” she said, “so you have 
come. Suppose we go into the sitting-room, 
Jane ; it is rather dark in here. You know we 
shut it up tight to keep out the heat. The 
sitting-room is on the shady side of the house.” 

Jennie gave Nannie a soft little pinch when 
her aunt called her Jane ; and they followed Miss 
Marvin through the wide hall to a room further 
to the rear. This was indeed a much more 
cheerful place, for, though it was prim and pre- 
cise, it had a cozy, homelike look as if it were 


Little Sister Anne 


74 

lived in. There were thin white curtains at the 
windows ; on the table was a vase of flowers, and 
before the door, which opened out upon a porch, 
dozed an old gray cat. 

“ I believe your little friend’s name is Anne,” 
said Miss Marvin to her great-niece. Jennie gave 
a little giggle and looked at Nannie. 

“ It is Anne, isn’t it ? ” said Miss Marvin kindly 
to Nannie. 

“ Yes, Miss Marvin,” replied Nannie helplessly. 

“Suppose then, Anne, you sit over here by 
this table with Jane, and I will show you some 
shells and some other things my father brought 
me when I was young. He was a great 
traveler.” She brought out a drawer of beauti- 
ful shells, carefully labeled. 

“How lovely,” exclaimed Nannie. 

“ I am glad they please you,” said Miss Marvin 
with a stiff little nod. Then she began to tell 
them many interesting things about the shells and 
Nannie became perfectly absorbed in examining 
them. When the shells were put away Miss 
Marvin brought some collections of seaweeds and 
a box of curious pebbles, then some Indian bead- 
work which the little girls admired very much. 


Old Miss Marvin 75 

The time passed so rapidly that ISTannie was sur- 
prised when the tall old clock in the corner 
solemnly struck six. Miss Marvin then arose 
from her chair and said: “ Now Jane, you may 
take Anne out into the garden and pick some 
raspberries for tea. I will give you each a bowl 
to put them in. Be careful and do not break the 
bowls. Hagar will tell you when tea is ready. 
I think you had better have on something over 
your white frocks; you might stain them.” 
The little girls stood still while she tied a ging- 
ham apron around the neck of each, and then 
they walked quietly out into the garden and 
down the box-bordered walk. 

“ I feel as if I were a little girl that lived, oh 
so long ago, don’t you, Jennie?” said Nannie 
when they had reached the raspberry bushes. 

“ I always do when I am at Aunt Maria’s,” re- 
plied Jennie. “ Don’t you like this garden ? ” 
Nannie looked around her at the old-fashioned 
borders filled with flowers having such quaint 
names as love-in-a-mist, pretty-by-nights, youth- 
and-old-age. Jennie named them all as her aunt 
had called them to her. 

“ Those are such funny names,” said Nannie, 


Little Sister Anne 


76 

laughing ; “ mamma calls those bright ones, zin- 
nias, and the pretty-by-nights she calls four- 
o’clocks.” 

“ I like the old names better.” 

“ So do I, and I am going to call them so after 
this. Dare we eat any raspberries ? ” 

“ A few I think. We mustn’t spoil our appe- 
tites for supper,” said Jennie sagely. 

“ Would you eat as many as ten ? They are so 
lovely and red and ripe. I never picked any be- 
fore; we haven’t any raspberry bushes, only a 
few currants.” 

“I should think ten wouldn’t be too many,” 
Jennie returned. 

They were not long in filling their bowls 
which they bore carefully to the house, being met 
at the door by Hagar who took the berries from 
them, unfastened their aprons and gave them a 
basin of water that they might wash their stained 
fingers. 

At table I^annie sat where she could look out 
upon the garden, but after a while her attention 
was attracted to a piece of work hanging on the 
wall opposite her. She considered it very artis- 
tic. Jennie noticed that she was looking at it 


Old Miss Marvin 


11 


and told her that it was some of Miss Marvin’s 
handiwork. “I’d like to know just what it is 
made of,” ventured Nannie. 

“The basket of flowers is composed of sea- 
weeds,” Miss Marvin told her. “ The leaves on 
the frame are of leather, and the grapes I made 
of whole allspice covered with leather. It has 
taken several prizes at fairs,” she added. 

Nannie admired it openly, thereby winning a 
pleased smile from Miss Marvin. 

The supper was delicious: thinly sliced pink 
ham, broiled chicken, delicate flaky biscuits, pre- 
serves, cake, and the raspberries with rich yellow 
cream. The china on the table Nannie thought 
specially pretty with its little rosebuds on a white 
ground. Miss Marvin ate delicately, but the two 
children did full justice to their meal. 

“If you will be very careful of the dollies, 
Jane, you and Anne may take them for a walk in 
the garden,” said their hostess as they arose from 
the table. 

“ The dollies ? ” exclaimed Nannie. 

“Yes,” Jennie nodded. “Aunt Maria’s dolls 
that she had when she was a little girl. Their 
names are Samantha and Lucre tia. I like Lu- 


Little Sister Anne 


78 

cretia the best, but you can have her because 
IVe had her lots of times.” 

Miss Marvin went to a drawer and produced 
from it the two dolls, each carefully wrapped up 
in a large square of linen. Lucretia was a wax 
doll whose eyes opened and shut if one pulled a 
wire secreted under her clothes. She was dressed 
in a very old-timey costume, and had very black 
hair and a rather ghastly complexion, but Nannie 
thought her beautiful. Around Samantha’s head 
was ranged a row of black curls, and her kid body 
was very stiff and unbending. The head was of 
composition. Miss Marvin told Nannie, who 
thought it a queer word to use in such a sense. 

“ I’m glad to see you again, Samantha,” said 
Jennie, taking the doll into her arms. “Come, 
Nannie, we’ll go down Lady Slipper’s Lane first, 
then up Pretty -by-Night Avenue.” 

Nannie laughed. “Aren’t those fine names 
for the walks? Is that what you always call 
them ? ” 

“ Yes. Aunt Maria named them for me.” 

“ I think she’s as nice as can be,” said Nannie 
with conviction. 

“ I told you she was.” 


Old Miss Marvin 


79 

‘‘And how many queer, pretty things she 
has.” 

“ Oh, you haven’t seen half of them. She has 
ever so many more. She’ll show them to you a 
few at a time ; that’s the way she does. Be very 
careful about letting Lucretia get too warm ; she 
might melt. Aunt Maria never lets me take her 
out in the sun.” 

“ Would she really melt ? ” 

“Of course; she’s wax, you know. I don’t 
see how Aunt Maria has kept her so well all these 
years, but she’s very careful of everything. Just 
think! These dolls are years and years older 
than we are, and older even than our mothers.” 

Nannie gazed down earnestly into Lucretia’s 
face. “ I wish they could talk,” she said ; “ they 
could tell so many nice things.” 

“ They can talk,” returned Jennie lightly. 

“ Why, J ennie Temple, what do you mean ? ” 

“ Just you wait ; we’ll take them back now and 
you’ll hear ; that is, I think so.” 

“ I wish you’d tell me what you mean.” 

“ I mean that Aunt Maria pretends that they 
tell about the days when they were young. She 
says she can pretend for them but she can’t for 


8o Little Sister Anne 

herself, so they tell about when she was a little 
girl.” 

“ Oh, do you think she’ll let them tell 
me ? ” 

“ I think she will ; I can’t say for certain.” 

Nannie was anxious to hurry back to the 
house, for if there was any one thing that she 
liked it was to listen to a story. Miss Maria 
very willingly consented to make the dolls talk, 
and with one tucked down each side of her in 
the big chair in which she sat, she told the story 
of how the dolls came into her possession, of 
how Lucretia was kept safely laid away in a 
bureau drawer and was never taken out except 
on rare occasions ; of how Samantha was the 
every-day doll, but that even she could be played 
with only at certain times in each day after the 
lessons were learned, the stent of sewing and 
knitting done, and the different duties required 
of little Maria Marvin were accomplished. No 
wonder this old Miss Marvin was prim and pre- 
cise, Nannie thought, if she had only an hour a 
day allowed her for playing with her doll. But 
it warmed her heart toward Miss Maria to know 
something of that little girl of so long ago, who 


Old Miss Marvin 8i 

sometimes did naughty things, and who liked to 
play with dolls. 

Miss Marvin used to have a big brother, too, 
who teased her, and who when he grew up, sailed 
to a far country and there died. It made a lump 
come into ITannie’s throat to think that perhaps 
such a thing might happen to her brother. “ I 
have a big brother, too,” she said, softly touching 
the curls on Lucretia’s black head. 

“ Then you can’t love him too much. Some 
day he may be taken from you,” said Miss Maria 
gravely. 

The tears came to E’annie’s eyes. “ I do love 
him so much,” she said tremulously. 

“ Then if ever he is in trouble give him all the 
love and confidence he asks,” Miss Maria went 
on, “ for you will never regret it.” 

Nannie thought of Jim Mason and the bor- 
rowed money, and was very glad she had robbed 
her bank for Biggy’s sake. 

When Miss Maria decided that it was time to 
put the dolls away, the little girls thought they 
had better go ; so they made their farewells, tell- 
ing Miss Maria that they had had “ a perfectly 
lovely time.” 


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CHAPTER V 
Liz Bess Lost 

Nannie was very sober as she walked home 
from Miss Maria’s, clasping in her hand a small 
box with a picture on it, and containing some 
delicate little pink shells, a string of beads, and 
a tiny glass pitcher. These Miss Maria had 
given her at parting. “ I hope you will come to 
see me again,” the good lady said, and Nannie 
promised. She did not foresee how often she 
would go there, and how familiar that sitting- 
room would become to her. 

“Well, daughter, did you have a good time?” 
her mother asked when she came in. 

“ I had a lovely time, mamma. See what Miss 
Maria gave me,” and she showed her treasures. 
“ Aren’t they dear ? Where is Biggy, mamma ? ” 

“ I’m sure I don’t know, daughter. He was 
here at supper time. I suppose he has gone to 
see some of his friends. Did you want him par- 
ticularly ?” 


86 


Little Sister Anne 


I wanted to show him these.” 

“They will keep till morning, won’t they? 
You’d better go to bed now. Liz Bess went up 
some time ago.” 

“ Mayn’t I stay up a little while ? ” 

“ It is your bedtime, dear.” Then Mrs. Hollis 
returned to her conversation with a caller, and 
Hannie went slowly out of the room. On the 
porch sat Louise with some of her young friends. 
They were talking gaily. Hannie listened for 
her brother’s voice and his merry laugh, but it 
was evident that he was not one of the company, 
so she went up-stairs to the room where in one 
little white bed lay Liz Bess fast asleep. “ I will 
give her one of my little pink shells ; she will 
think it is so cunning.” Hannie was always gen- 
erous and ready to share any new possession with 
her little sister when it could be divided. This 
was one reason why her brother loved her more 
than he did his eldest sister who was not disposed 
to be so unselfish. 

Hannie thought that she would lie awake till her 
brother came in, and then she would steal into 
his room and show him her little box with its 
contents. She would like to kiss him good-night, 


Liz Bess Lost 


87 

too, for that story of Miss Marvin’s still lingered 
in her memory, but she was tired and soon fell 
asleep. She awakened later to see the bright 
moonlight streaming into her room. She sat up 
in bed for a moment. Was it so very late ? She 
heard footsteps on the street, then some one came 
up the steps and tried the front door. It might 
be the night watchman, but no, it could not be, 
for now she heard some one scramble upon the 
fence and over the side gate, then there were 
footsteps in the yard and some one tried the side 
door. The child was terrified. Perhaps thieves 
were trying to get in. She lay still, trembling 
with fear, and wondering if she ought to get up 
and call her father, but lacked the courage to 
do so. 

Presently she heard a low whistle, and some 
one softly called her name. She sat up straight 
again. It was Biggy. He was locked out. She 
stole softly out on the little balcony which led 
from her room. True enough, her brother stood 
below. 

“ Hallo, Han,” he said softly, “you couldn’t let 
me in, could you ? I’m locked out.” 

“ O, Biggy, are you ? Shall I call father ? ” 


Little Sister Anne 


He hesitated. ‘‘I’d rather you didn’t. It’s 
pretty late, you see, and he supposed I was home 
and in bed hours ago. Let me in, there’s a good 
girl. You can sneak down the back stairs, and 
no one will know.” 

“ It’s all dark, and I’m afraid.” 

“ Nothing can hurt you; the moonlight comes 
in at the upper window, and I shall be right here. 
I don’t know how to manage if you don’t. I’ll 
have to sleep on a bench on the porch.” 

This was too dreadful to be thought of, and in 
spite of her fears, Nannie decided to do as her 
brother asked, fortifying herself with the memory 
of what Miss Marvin had said. “ If he should go 
to a far country and should never come back I’d 
be sorry I didn’t do this,” she thought as she 
crept down the back stair, terrified at every creak 
of the boards under her feet. She felt her way 
along the dark entry, and through the dining- 
room to the side door, stumbling more than once 
against chairs and tables. Fumbling for the key 
she found it, gave it a turn and instantly her 
brother stepped inside. 

“You’re the right stuff,” he said. He locked 
the door, then felt for the little figure close to 


Liz Bess Lost 


89 

him. Picking her up in his arms he carried her 
bodily up-stairs, her arms tightly clasping his neck. 
There was a satisfaction in having him so close, 
and in having helped him. She did not question 
whether he had done right in staying out late ; 
all she thought of was that he was safe inside. 
She pressed her warm cheek against his, and he 
gave her a kiss there in the dark. “ I’ll not for- 
get this, Kan,” he said. ‘‘ A fellow can always 
depend on you. Don’t say anything about it.” 
He set her down outside her door and she crept 
back to bed with a little uneasy feeling of not 
having done exactly right, but with no intention 
of telling on her brother. 

The next morning she showed her treasures to 
Lynn and her sisters. Her brother admired the 
shells to her satisfaction and Liz Bess was made 
happy by the possession of one for her very own. 
Louise did not take much interest in them. She 
was making a dressing sacque out of a piece of 
lawn which Kannie admired very much. It had 
little blue flying birds all over it. “It would 
make a lovely kimono for my doll,” she said. 
“ Will you have any pieces left, Louie ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, lots of them,” she was told. 


go Little Sister Anne 

“ Then I wish you’d make a kimono for my 
doll.” 

“ I’ll cut one out for you, and you can make it. 
They are just nothing to make. I’ll show you 
how,” said Louise. She was in a very good hu- 
mor, for she had just heard from her best friend 
who was coming to make her a visit, and she was 
full of pleasant anticipations. Louise was a 
rather pretty girl with soft, fluffy, light hair, blue 
eyes, and a fair complexion. “ You look so pleas- 
ant this morning,” IS^annie remarked, viewing her 
critically. 

“ I feel pleasant,” Louise told her. “ I am ex- 
pecting Leila Koss this evening. I wish you’d 
try to find sdme flowers to put in her room ; any 
time before supper will do.” 

“ I’ll try,” iNannie answered, “ but there aren’t 
many growing now except the nasturchins.” 

“ Nasturtiums,” corrected Louise. 

“Liz Bess calls them nasty urchins,” said Nan- 
nie. “ What is urchin, Louie ? ” 

“ An urchin is a small boy.” 

“ Oh,” Nannie laughed, “ then she called Bed 
Cap that and she didn’t know. What is a sea- 
urchin, Louie ? ” 


Liz Bess Lost 


91 


“It’s — why you know what it is; I brought 
one from Maine last summer ; it is over there on 
my desk.” 

“ Was the little urchin in it when you got it ? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know. What foolish questions 
you do ask. Go bring your doll and I’ll cut out 
her kimono.” 

ISfannie brought the doll and leaving her with 
her sister she walked slowly away. There were 
many questions that she desired to ask, but 
answers were very often unsatisfactory, and to 
be told not to ask foolish questions made her 
rather timid about asking any at all, for how was 
she to know whether a question was foolish or 
not ? “ I’m sure they have as much sense as some 
of the questions Louie asks,” she said to herself, 
“ and people are not all the time telling her not 
to be foolish. I’d like to know what makes peo- 
ple call mushrooms that. It is such a funny word 
— mushroom. What kind of a room would it be, 
anyway?” With these thoughts in her mind 
she went sideways down-stairs, sliding her hands 
along the balustrade, and lifting her feet as 
she did so. At the foot of the stairs stood 
Jennie. 


92 


Little Sister Anne 


“Hallo,” she cried. “I saw you coming. 
Where are you going ? ” 

“ Out into the garden to get some flowers for 
Miss Leila Ross’s room. Louie said nasturchins 
— no, nasturtiums — would do. There aren’t any 
others till the cosmos and china asters bloom.” 

“Aunt Maria has lots of ragged-robins, and 
bachelor’s buttons, and sweet-peas.” 

“ Yes, but they don’t grow in our yard.” 

“ She’d give you some.” 

“ Oh, I wouldn’t ask her for anything.” 

“ She said you were a nice little girl.” 

“ I think she was lovely to us.” 

“ I think so too, and really I’d be very fond of 
her if she did not call me Jane. I don’t mind 
that so much now that she calls you Anne, 
Mother says she thinks Anne is a very pretty 
name when it is spelled with an E at the end.” 

“Oh, did she? That’s nice, but I don’t see 
what difference it makes when it sounds the 
same. Hobody can tell whether the E is there 
or not if they don’t see it.” 

They had come to the nasturtium border and 
began to pick industriously. “ I think that will 
do,” said Nannie when each had a good handful. 


Liz Bess Lost 


93 

“ Louie is cutting out a kimono for my big doll. 
Why don’t you get your mother to cut out one for 
you ? Then we can come out here under the tree 
this afternoon and make them.” 

“Mamma makes me cut out things myself. 
She cuts out the pattern and gives me that and 
the stuff. She says it teaches me how to do it all 
myself, and when I am older I can cut out and 
make my own clothes.” 

“ She must be a very smart mother to cut out 
patterns.” 

“ She does it very easily. She measures a little 
and fits a little and they are always just right.” 

“ A kimono doesn’t have any fit. Your Bea- 
trice is about the size of my doll, so you can cut 
out your kimono by mine.” 

“ That will be fine,” said Jennie. “ Til hunt 
up something in mamma’s piece bag and be here 
right after dinner.” 

JS'annie took in the flowers and arranged them 
in a vase in Miss Leila’s room. After dinner she 
carried her work-basket and her work out to the 
garden. In a few minutes Jennie made her ap- 
pearance with her work-basket and a piece of red 
and white flowered stuff. 


94 


Little Sister Anne 


“ Oh, that’s awfully pretty,” declared Nannie. 
“ It is better to have yours red and mine blue. 
See, how easy they are ; you just sew up those 
two seams and that makes sleeves and all. Louie 
gave me a piece of the plain blue to put down 
the front.” 

‘‘ I’ll see if mamma has any plain red so I can 
do mine that way.” 

They sat contentedly sewing for quite a long 
time. Jennie’s work looked the neater, but 
Nannie finished hers first. Liz Bess had been 
playing near them, a tiny china doll her play- 
thing. She had dressed it in a bit of the blue ma- 
terial, but it took only a very short time to pre- 
pare the costume which was simply a bit of the 
stuff with two holes snipped out for the doll’s 
arms, and a strip of the same blue for a sash. 
It suited Liz Bess perfectly, however, and there 
was no necessity for extra stitches. 

When Nannie and Jennie had dressed their 
dolls in their new kimonos they parted company. 
“ I must go in,” said Nannie, “ for Miss Leila is 
coming and I must get dressed.” Jennie disap- 
peared through the gap in the fence and Nannie 
went back to the house. 



Nannie Finished Hers First 



Liz Bess Lost 


95 

At supper-time Mrs. Hollis asked ; “ Where is 
Elizabeth, Nannie ? I haven’t seen her since 
she came in to be dressed.” 

“ I haven’t seen her either,” replied Nannie. 

“ She was out playing under the tree when we 
were sewing. She had her littlest doll and I gave 
her a piece of stuff for a dress for it. Didn’t 
Maggie see her ? ” 

“Not since she dressed her and sent her 
down-stairs. She is hunting for her now. You’d 
better dress and then see if you can find her.” 

Nannie hurried through her dressing and then 
began her search for her little sister. She met 
Maggie coming up the street. “ Can’t you find 
her ? ” she asked. 

“ Not a smitch of her,” Maggie answered. “ I 
thought maybe she’d a penny and had gone to 
the store ; she do be goin’ there sometimes to buy 
a taste av candy, but they’ve not seen her. She’s 
slipped me wanst or twicet that way, but I’ve 
always found her easy.” 

“ She was in the garden the last I saw of ' 
her.” 

“ I’ve searched it through, and not a sign av 
her.” 


Little Sister Anne 


96 

“ I’ll go in to Mrs. Temple’s and ask if she’s 
there. She might have gone in, you know, by 
the back way.” Nannie ran up the steps which 
were hard by, and rang the bell. The servant 
shook her head when asked if she had seen the 
little girl. “ They’re all out,” she told Nannie. 
“ They’ve gone out to tea, and I’m just on the 
way out myself. She can’t be here, or I’d have 
seen her. It’s the cook’s day off and it’s all shut 
up back.” 

Nannie hurried home again, but Liz Bess was 
still missing. Louie had gone to the train to 
meet her friend. “ Maybe Liz Bess went with 
her,” suggested Nannie. 

‘‘That’s just it,” said her mother. “I never 
thought of that ; of course that is where she has 
gone. Leila was always fond of the child and no 
doubt Louie took her. We’ll not trouble our- 
selves further.” 

The train was late which brought Miss Boss, 
and it was nearly nine o’clock before Louie and 
her guest made their appearance. In the midst 
of the greetings and the flurry of arrival no one 
thought of Liz Bess for a little while, then Mrs. 
Hollis looked around for the child. “ Come, 


Liz Bess Lost 


97 

Elizabeth,” she called, “ eat your supper and go 
to bed.” 

“ I gave her her supper early, ma’am,” said 
Maggie. “ She said she was hungry, and I knew 
you’d not be wanting her to wait till so late as 
you’d be eating.” 

“ Very well. Then she ought to have come in 
with you, Louise. Go out, Maggie, and tell her 
that it is bedtime. We did not wait supper, 
Leila, when Lynn brought word that the train 
was so late, so if you will excuse Maggie from 
waiting on you, she can put Elizabeth to bed. 
She is not used to sitting up till this hour.” 

“ Do bring the dear little thing in here,” said 
Leila. “ I do so want to see her.” 

“ But haven’t you seen her ? She was with 
you, wasn’t she, Louie ? Didn’t she go to the 
train with you ? ” 

“ 1 ^ 0 , indeed, mamma. She wanted to go, but 
I thought maybe the train would be late; it 
often is, and I didn’t take her.” 

“ When did you see her ? ” asked Mrs. Hollis 
in a sharp, anxious tone. 

“Just about half-past six, as I was starting 
out. Didn’t you see her at supper ? ” 


Little Sister Anne 


98 

“ Maggie gave her supper early,” murmured 
Mrs. Hollis, rising and going out of the room. 

Hannie followed her. “ Oh, mamma,” she said 
tearfully, “ do you suppose she is lost ? ” 

Mrs. Hollis did not answer, but passed swiftly 
on to the library where her husband sat. 
“ Theodore,” she said excitedly ; “ Elizabeth, our 
baby, is lost. Oh, go and find her, our little 
baby girl. Oh, go, go.” 

Mr. Hollis threw down his newspaper and 
sprang to his feet. “ What do you mean, 
Louise ? ” 

‘‘She hasn’t been seen since just about half- 
past six when Louie went to meet her friend. 
We have searched the house and garden. We 
have been to the neighbors and everywhere that 
we can think of. Oh, where is she ? It is get- 
ting late. It is past her bedtime. It is dark.” 

“ Don’t worry, dear,” said Mr. Hollis sooth- 
ingly. “ If she has strayed too far some one will 
find her and bring her back. I’ll go and see that 
all the police stations are notified. How, don’t 
worry ; she’ll be back in no time.” He stopped 
to say no more, but snatched up his hat and went 
out. 


Liz Bess Lost 


99 


Nannie sat down on the floor and began to 
weep forlornly. Her mother went to the front 
door, stood irresolutely looking up and down the 
street and then stepped out. Nannie watched 
her go, and then considered what she could do to 
help. She would get her brother and together 
they would not be afraid to go anywhere, not 
even to the police station. She dried her eyes 
and hurried out to the dining-room where her 
brother sat talking nonsense to Leila Koss. 

Biggy,” exclaimed Nannie as she stood in the 
doorway, “ oh, Biggy, come find Liz Bess ; she’s 
lost, she’s lost.” 

“ Haven’t they found her yet ? ” cried Louise. 
“ O, Nannie, haven’t they ?” 

Lynn strode over and looked down at his little 
sister’s trembling lips and tearful eyes. “ I’ll 
find her,” he said confidently. ‘‘Don’t bother, 
sister Anne.” 

Nannie slipped her hand into his. “ Take me, 
too,” she said. 

“ Why ” he hesitated, but there was such 

a wistful pleading in her eyes that he did not 
refuse her, and with her hand still clasped in his 
they went out into the street. Every one they 


LofC. 


lOO 


Little Sister Anne 


met Lynn accosted, asking for news of the little 
child, and several joined in the search. Mr. 
Hollis returned to tell the family that he had 
telephoned to all the police stations, and that it 
would probably not be long before they should 
see the little one. 

An hour passed but no news came. It was 
long past Hannie’s bedtime, but when she came 
back after her tramp with her brother, she was 
very wide awake and clung to Lynn as her main 
dependence. 

Mrs. Hollis sat with tightly-clasped hands and 
a strained look on her face, listening to every 
sound. “ You must stay here at home, dear, for 
you would not want to be away when she comes,’* 
her husband said, feeling that she was worn out 
with her swift Sittings from place to place. 
Mrs. Hollis nodded in reply. It was true that 
she would not for worlds miss welcoming back 
the lost baby. 

Hannie went up and put her arms around her 
mother’s neck. “ Don’t look so, mamma,” she 
whispered. ‘‘I know we’ll find her; I just 
know it.” 

Her mother smiled faintly. “ It is a great 


Liz Bess Lost 


101 


deal to have such faith, darling. I will try 
to hope. It is late, dear child ; you must go to 
bed.” 

“ Oh, mamma! ” The tears came to Kannie’s 
eyes as she thought of the little white bed in her 
room with no Liz Bess in it. “ I couldn’t go to 
sleep, mamma, till she came.” 

“ Perhaps you could. You must be all tired 
out. I am afraid you will be ill. Go, to please 
mamma. I will waken you when Elizabeth 
comes.” 

With this assurance Nannie felt that she must 
be satisfied, and for her mother’s sake she was 
willing to do anything, but she went very 
reluctantly to her room. “ I needn’t get un- 
dressed,” she said to herself, “ for I might have 
to get up any minute. I’ll just lie down and try 
to go to sleep.” She pulled up the blinds that 
she might see out from where she would be 
lying, then she curled herself up on the bed and 
drew a light shawl over her. She lay staring out 
into the dim garden. It was there that she had 
last seen her little sister and she could not help 
associating her with the place. ^ 


\ 




4 



















CHAPTER VI 

Looking for the Gnome 

The clock struck eleven. Nannie counted the 
strokes. They sounded very solemn. She did 
not remember that she had ever before heard 
that hour strike at night. The moon with the 
man’s smiling face in it, rose over the top of the 
apple-tree. It looked very large and bright. 
In a few minutes Nannie heard a sound in the 
next room and a light shone under the crack of 
the door. She threw off the light coverlet and 
tiptoed to the door. “Biggy,” she called in a 
low voice, “ is that you ? ” 

“ Yes,” was the answer. 

“ May I come in ? ” 

For reply her brother opened the door. He 
had a small pistol in his hand which he fell to 
examining. 

“ O, Biggy ! ” exclaimed Nannie, “ what are 
you going to do with that ? ” 

“ I am going out to Price’s. It is rather a 


io6 Little Sister Anne 

lonely road, and I thought it might be just as 
well to take this. Not that there’s the least 
danger,” he added, seeing the look of anxiety on 
his sister’s face, “ but it’s just as well to carry it.” 

“ But what are you going to Price’s for ? ” 

“ To see if they have any news of Liz Bess. 
You know she dearly loves to go there, and, as 
she is a bright little youngster, who knows but 
that she has taken it into her head to travel out 
in that direction ? It is worth trying, any- 
how.” 

“ Oh, couldn’t you take me ? ” 

Lynn smiled. “ Not very well. I’m going to 
ride Bob Koy. Father has gone to call up the 
different hospitals.” 

“ Hospitals ? Why O, Biggy, you don’t 

think she is hurt ? ” 

Mother thought maybe she might have fallen 
down or — or — that some little accident might 
have happened to her, so father said it would do 
no harm to inquire.” 

Visions of trolley cars bearing down upon the 
sweet body of Liz Bess, of frantic horses tramp- 
ling her under foot, arose before Nannie and the 
tears again began to flow. 


107 


Looking for the Gnome 

‘‘There, IVe scared you,” said her brother. 
“ What a blundering jack I am. Don’t cry, 
JSTannie dear. Come kiss your big brother good- 
night and go to bed. Why, you are still dressed.” 

“ Yes, I couldn’t go to sleep, you know, and I 
wanted to be all ready to get up when she came,” 
she said with a piteous scanning of his face. Did 
he really believe the baby sister would be brought 
back safe and well ? she wondered. 

“ You’d better try to go to sleep. We’ll find 
her all right, and by to-morrow morning you’ll 
wonder you ever felt scared.” He tried to reas- 
sure her, though his own heart was heavy as he 
kissed her and saw that she was safe in her 
own room before he turned down the gas and 
left her. 

All these new dreads but made Hannie more 
wide awake, and she concluded that it was no 
use for her to try to keep her eyes closed, so she 
went to the window to watch the moon climbing 
over the tree-tops. How it was glimmering 
through the uppermost branches of the tall 
cherry-tree ; soon it would sail out into the clear 
blue heavens. The hour was very near when one 
could expect the fairies to come out, and for the 


io8 


Little Sister Anne 


little gnome in the apple-tree to begin to turn 
the apples. The garden was quite light and 
Nannie could distinguish the various bushes 
easily. She stepped out on the little balcony. 
Over there in Jennie’s house it was all dark. 
Jennie was sound asleep, no doubt, little dream- 
ing that her friend was awake and up, so near to 
midnight. The sound of a dog’s baying at the 
moon came to the little watcher’s ears. It made 
the night seem very lonely and still to hear just 
one sound like that. The barking of the dog 
was answered by another’s, and that put Nannie 
in mind of Tatters. Liz Bess was so fond of 
Tatters. 

Then suddenly came a thought to her of one 
place where they had not looked for the lost 
child. Lynn had told her that their mother and 
the two girls were pacing up and down before 
the house, too restless and miserable to sit still. 
She would not ask their help, for it might arouse 
false hopes. She would go by herself. She re- 
membered the night when she had crept down- 
stairs in the dark to open the door for Lynn. It 
was only the night before, but it seemed very 
long ago. To-night the lights were burning in 


Looking for the Gnome 109 

the hall aud the dining-room, so there was no rea- 
son for being frightened. 

She went down the stairs, softly opened the 
door into the garden, and stepped out. The odor 
of petunias, nasturtiums, and of the large white 
moon-flowers, drifted toward her. The garden 
was very silent and shadowy. For a moment 
the child stood, half afraid to venture into its 
dusky recesses, but the object of her search in- 
spired her with courage, and she felt a sense of 
protection when she caught a glimmer of Lynn’s 
lantern flashing from the stable. On she went 
down the walk to the apple-tree, then to the gap 
in the fence, and through to the Temples’ garden. 

A low growl from Tatters showed her that he 
considered her a trespasser. She spoke his name 
softly and he gave a little yelp of recognition, 
then went back to his kennel. A moment later 
Nannie was stooping down and feeling inside the 
dog-house. Then she gave a glad cry. “ Liz 
Bess ! O Liz Bess, are you in there ? ” 

A very sleepy voice answered : “Go ’way ; I 
don’t ’ant you.” 

“ 0 Liz Bess, it’s dark night,” explained 
Nannie. 


no 


Little Sister Anne 


Two blinking, winking eyes peeped out of the 
kennel. “Is it ’way dark, Nannie ? Zen we can 
see ze ’ittle gnome, can’t we?” And Liz Bess 
crawled out, Tatters wagging his tail and preced- 
ing her. He was very hospitably inclined, and 
had done his best to show his appreciation of his 
guest by lying close to her side and snuggling his 
head in her hand. Liz Bess looked warm and 
rumpled. She had found Tatters’ quarters rather 
close. 

Nannie dropped on her knees and fell to hug- 
ging and kissing Liz Bess so ardently that the 
child wondered. “ What is you love me zat way 
for ? ” she asked. 

“ O Liz Bess, mamma and papa and all of us 
were so worried ; we were sure you were lost.” 

“ But I wasn’t,” said Liz Bess. “ Show me ze 
’ittle gnome, Nannie.” 

But Nannie paid no heed to her request. She 
hurried her little sister’s unwilling feet down the 
walk, at each step shouting: “She’s found! 
She’s found ! ” 

Lynn, just ready to mount his horse, heard the 
glad news, and following the direction from 
which the cry came he was able to meet the two 


Ill 


Looking for the Gnome 

little girls just as they were crawling through the 
gap in the fence. Then his voice took up the 
call : “ She’s found ! She’s found ! ” He caught 

Liz Bess in his arms, gave her a hearty kiss and 
sped with her to the house, Nannie following as 
fast as she could, though not able to keep up 
with him. She was on hand, however, by the 
time Mrs. Hollis had made her way from the 
front of the house in response to the welcome 
shout. 

“ I found her,” announced Nannie, jumping up 
and down with delight. “ I found her. She was 
asleep in Tatters’ house.” 

“ Oh, my baby, my baby ! ” Mrs. Hollis had 
Liz Bess in her arms and was holding her close, 
so close that Liz Bess was all at sea because of 
this great demonstration on the part of the whole 
family. 

‘‘ I wasn’t lost,” she repeated. “ I ’anted to see 
ze ’ittle gnome turn ze apples, and Nannie 
wouldn’t show him to me.” This grievance 
seemed to overtop everything else. She had 
made such an effort to see the gnome, and to be 
cheated out of this wonderful sight, after all, was 
too disappointing. 


112 


Little Sister Anne 


From what they could gather she had been 
thinking for a long time of what Nannie had told 
Jennie concerning the gnome in the apple-tree, 
and had made up her mind that she would some- 
time see for herself. This evening her opportu- 
nity had come, for her own early supper and the 
late one of the family gave her a chance to slip 
.away unnoticed. The maids had been busy and 
had not seen her when she crept through the 
fence. She had found Tatters onlj^ too glad of 
her company since his own family had gone away 
and left him alone, and, after she had tired of 
playing with him, she had crept into the dog- 
house, meaning to stay there till midnight and 
then go to look for the gnome. It is quite likely 
that she would have slept quietly till morning if 
Nannie had not disturbed her slumbers, and of 
all the family she was the only one who was not 
the worse for her prank. She was still sleepy 
and not in a very good humor, and before any one 
else could think of sleep, she was in Dreamland 
again, her head on her own pillow, and her last 
words before dropping off, a complaint that Nan- 
nie had failed to show her the little gnome. 

As Lynn had prophesied, by the next day Nan- 


Looking for the Gnome 113 

nie had recovered from her scare and it was not 
long before she had almost forgotten that she had 
been so alarmed about her little sister’s safety. 
Matters went along in the old way, and Liz Bess 
after a while ceased to think about the gnome. 

One morning not long after all this excitement 
ISTannie came down-stairs in a bad humor. Her 
brother told her that she had tried to get up the 
wrong way, for she said snappy things to him, 
answered Louise crossly, and finally was so im- 
pertinent to her mother that she was sent from 
the breakfast table in tears. She didn’t see how 
it was, she complained to herself ; everybody was 
against her, and the climax was reached when in 
response to a look she gave Liz Bess the latter 
made a face at her, and then Hannie gave her lit- 
tle sister a sharp pinch which brought shrieks from 
Liz Bess ; in consequence of which Hannie was 
marched to her room where she was bidden to stay 
in solitude for the rest of the day. This was a dis- 
grace that had rarely fallen to Hannie’s lot in all 
her short career, and she felt it keenly, though she 
held her head high and said she didn’t care. She 
liked her room better than any other in the house 
and she would rather stay away from all the dis- 


114 


Little Sister Anne 


agreeable people around her. She hoped nobody 
would come near her. And nobody did, except 
Maggie who brought up her dinner — minus the 
dessert. Even she didn’t come in, but just tapped 
on the door and set the plate down outside. 

By three o’clock [N’annie was getting rather 
tired of being alone. She had read till she was 
tired of books ; she had played with her doll till 
she didn’t care to have her within sight, and the 
poor thing had been flung in disgrace into one 
corner. She had sorted over her hair ribbons, 
arranged her bureau drawers, counted the rose- 
buds on the wall paper, and then was at a loss to 
know what to do next. She stepped out on the 
balcony and leaned on the railing. There was 
no one but Pity in sight in her own garden, and 
he was stretched out asleep under a bush. In 
Jennie’s garden Tatters was lazily snapping at the 
flies, and watching a few sparrows who were 
quarreling over some bits of bread that they had 
found. There was nothing very interesting in 
sight, Nannie thought. 

But presently down the path of Jennie’s garden 
came Jennie herself. She went to the gap in the 
fence and peeped through, hoping to catch a 


Looking for the Gnome 115 

glimpse of her neighbor. ISTannie watched her 
for a few minutes and then she called out : 
“ Hallo ! ’’ 

Jennie looked up. “ Oh, there you are,’’ she 
said. “ Why don’t you come down into the gar- 
den ? ” 

“ It’s too warm,” returned Hannie. 

“ Oh, no, it isn’t,” said Jennie ; “ it’s as cool as 
anything under the trees ; there is a real good 
breeze. See.” She stood out in the path so 
Nannie could see the breeze flutter the skirt of 
her pink gingham frock. 

‘‘ I don’t care,” returned Nannie, ‘‘ I think I’ll 
stay up here.” 

“I think you’re real mean,” said Jennie. 

Nannie made no reply, but continued to lean 
on the railing. For a few minutes Jennie watched 
the fluttering of her skirt, then she said : “ If you 
don’t want to play in the garden come over to 
my house, and we can go indoors. Bring your 
doll and come.” 

Nannie kicked the toe of her shoe against the 
railing, rather put to it to know what excuse to 
give her for not agreeing to the proposition. To 
have Jennie know that she was in disgrace was 


Little Sister Anne 


1 16 

too much for her pride, so she did not answer for 
a minute. Then a bright thought struck her. 
“ I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” she said : “ you stay 
down there and we’ll pretend this is a sinking 
ship, and the men are up in the rigging. You 
can send up a life-line and I’ll fasten my doll and 
some paper dolls to it ; then you can be the man 
at the life-saving station, and draw them in.” 

“They’ll come down flying,” said Jennie; 
“there will be such a slope. It would be fine if 
we could get a long, long rope and stretch it from 
one of our windows to your balcony.” 

“ That would be fine,” Nannie agreed, “ but it 
is so far I’m afraid we couldn’t get anything long 
enough.” 

“ If we could get our clothes-line and yours and 
tie them together, I think they would reach. 
We might try anyhow. I’ll ask Hannah for ours. 
I know she’ll let me have it, so long as I don’t 
hurt it.” 

“You can ask Maggie for ours while you are 
down there.” 

“ Oh, no ; you ask. I don’t like to.” 

“ Oh, yes, you ask. She’ll do it more quickly 
for you than for me.” 


117 


Looking for the Gnome 

Thus persuaded Jennie made her requests and 
was given the lines. These she tied together, 
and having fastened one end just outside the 
windows of the dining-room of her own home, 
she carried the other end along, flung it over the 
fence and brought it on till she stood under Nan- 
nie’s window. “ Now, how are you going to get 
it up there ? ” she asked. 

Nannie considered the subject. “ They shoot 
a line out, you know, from the life-saving sta- 
tions, but we can’t do that, I know; I’ll let 
down a line and you can tie it to the end of the 
rope, and I can pull it up. That will do.” She 
hunted about for a piece of string, but could And 
nothing stouter than a spool of darning cotton. 
However, this answered the purpose very well, 
and soon the end of the rope was safely tied 
around the railing of the balcony. Then Jennie 
went home and made the line taut at her end. 

Now how are you going to send them over ? ” 
Jennie called across. 

“ I’ll show you,” Nannie answered. She was 
really quite ingenious. She remembered a large 
hairpin which she had seen on the floor. Louise 
had probably dropped it there. She hunted it 


Little Sister Anne 


118 

up, bent it into a hook, slipped it over the handle 
of a small work-basket and with a paper doll as 
occupant, the basket was sent scudding down to 
where Jennie stood. So far the rescue was a 
great success. 

“ Now,” called Jennie, “ how are we to get it 
back again ? ” 

How indeed ? This certainly was a poser. It 
couldn’t run up hill, and Jennie’s end of the line 
was lower. Nannie gave the matter a moment 
of intent thought, then she called : “ Pull the 

end of the rope up to your second story ; it’s 
higher than ours. You can let a string down 
from your room and fasten the end of the rope 
so that it will be slack.” 

‘‘ Oh, but I’ll have to run up and down-stairs so 
much,” complained Jennie. “You go down to 
your yard every other time, and I’ll go up to my 
room every other time ; that will be fair.” 

“No, I can’t go,” declared Nannie, “ because 
you see that’s all ocean below there and I’ll get 
drowned. I know what to do ; fasten the rope 
so it will be long enough to run down hill.” 

“ It won’t run down hill ; it will just sag in the 
middle.” 


Looking for the Gnome 119 

‘‘It will run down if you have two strings 
coming from your window ; you can loop the 
rope under the railing of your dining-room porch 
and fasten a string each side to the rope ; one 
string outside the railing and one in, then you 
can manage both strings from your room.” 

Jennie did not quite understand, but finally 
was made to see what Nannie meant, and the res- 
cue went on. 

Several paper dolls had been saved from a wa- 
tery grave, and Nannie was preparing to send 
forth one of her heavier dolls on the perilous 
journey when her mother came to the door of 
her room and looked in. “ Nannie,” she called. 

“ Yes, mamma.” Nannie left the interesting 
occupation of tying the doll in the basket and 
turned toward her mother. 

“ What are you doing ? ” 

“Just playing shipwreck, mamma.” 

“ But you know you are here for punishment 
and not for play. I am afraid you are not very 
penitent.” 

“You only said I was not to leave my room, 
mamma, and I haven’t once.” 

“ Are you playing with any one ? ” 


120 


Little Sister Anne 


“ I am playing with Jennie.” 

“ Then you must tell her that you have to stop. 
I want you to sit here quietly and think of your 
naughtiness.” 

“ I have thought of it, mamma, for hours and 
hours ; it’s very late in the afternoon.” 

“ I said all day, you remember.” 

“Yes, mamma. It’s most all day, isn’t it? 
May I come out at supper time ? ” 

“ You may come down to supper, but you must 
not go out to play. You must not go off the 
steps, and must go to bed when Elizabeth does.” 

Nannie heaved a deep sigh. This punishment 
was surely to be lengthened out to its utmost 
limit. 

“Go now, and tell Jennie,” said her mother 
gently. 

“ But there’s the clothes-line,” said Nannie ; 
“Jennie will have to wind it all up, ours and 
hers, too.” 

“ How did you get the clothes-line ? ” 

“Jennie asked for it. We haven’t hurt it a 
bit, mamma. We just tied the two together, and 
slid the basket down them. Do you think it’s 
fair for her to have to wind up both ? ” 


121 


Looking for the Gnome 

“No, I do not. You may go down and do 
your share, but you must come back directly it’s 
finished.” 

“Yes, mamma.” It was something to be al- 
lowed even a few moments of liberty, and Nan- 
nie was determined to make the most of them. 
She went to the balcony and called over, “ I have 
to stop now, Jennie. Mamma says so. Come 
down and let’s wind up the ropes.” She did not 
wait for Jennie’s reply, but after untying the end 
of the rope from the balcony she went down- 
stairs. 

When she had reached the garden Jennie called 
over the fence : “ You’ll have to come over and 
help me untie the lines,” so Nannie went through 
to find Jennie tugging away at the hard knot. 
It proved too much for their little fingers and 
Hannah had to come out to their aid. Then 
Nannie slowly wound up the long piece into a 
coil and rolled it through the gap in the fence. 

“What makes you go in ? ” Jennie asked. 

“ Mamma wants me,” was the reply. 

“ What for ? ” 

Nannie hesitated a moment. “To go some- 
where,” she replied, after refiecting that this was 


122 


Little Sister Anne 


perfectly true, for did not her mamma want her 
to go to her own room, and was not that some- 
where ? 

But Jennie was not satisfied with this brief 
answer, and pressed her questions still further. 
“ Where ? ” she asked. 

“ Oh, don’t ask so many questions ; it isn’t any- 
where you’d like to go,” replied Nannie tartly. 

Jennie gave her chin a sudden tip upward. 
“Oh, I don’t care where you go,” she said. 
“ You needn’t be so stiff about it. If it’s such a 
great secret, why, keep it.” And she walked off 
in a huff. 


CHAPTER VII 
Making Up 



CHAPTER VII 
Making Up 

'No sooner had Jennie’s switching skirts disap- 
peared from sight than Nannie began to be very 
sorry that she had let her go without an explana- 
tion. She wished she had been more frank, for 
then the quarrel would have been avoided. For 
a moment she was inclined to run after her friend 
and tell her the exact truth, but she could not 
bring herself to make the confession; so she 
slowly picked up the coil of rope, took it to the 
kitchen, and then returned to her room. Surely 
it had been a hard day, and to end it by offend- 
ing Jennie was too much. She was more un- 
happy over this than over her morning’s naughti- 
ness, and felt that she did not care to dress for 
supper nor even to go out on the porch steps, for 
there would be no Jennie to join her there. She 
had meant to whisper a word to Biggy, and hoped 
that he would go and tell Jennie that Nannie 
wanted her, but now she could not send, for Jen- 


126 


Little Sister Anne 


nie was angry. She put her head in at her 
mother’s door and said very meekly: “What 
frock shall I put on, mamma ? ” 

“You may wear your blue one,” her mother 
returned. This was the frock which Nannie least 
admired, but she made no protest. If there was 
ever a day when a penitential robe w’as fitting, it 
was this day. She put on the despised frock, but 
did not go down-stairs till she heard the summons 
to supper, then she stole down quietly and meekly 
took her place at table. She felt very shamefaced 
that Miss Leila should see her under such circum- 
stances, and she cast an appealing look at her, 
but Miss Leila smiled encouragingly and Biggy, 
who always stood up for his favorite sister, gave 
her the wishbone from his piece of cold chicken ; 
so Nannie felt a little comforted now that this 
ordeal was over. 

However, there was Jennie to be conciliated, 
and Nannie was as grave as a judge. Even 
when Biggy whispered funny things to her to 
make her laugh she could give him only a faint 
smile in return. Jennie, it may be said, felt no 
less badly. She was very fond of Nannie, and 
could not understand why her friend, generally 


127 


Making Up 

so ready to give her confidences, should seem so 
unlike her usual merry self. “ I’ve done nothing, 
I’m sure,” Jennie told herself. “ It was enough 
to make anybody mad to have her act so ; ” and 
so she did not go near Nannie all evening, but 
went to her room early and watched for the light 
in her neighbor’s room which would tell when 
Nannie was ready for bed. Jennie was very 
much less angry by this time, and her tender 
heart conjured up all sorts of possibilities. Sup- 
pose Nannie should be killed in an accident or 
should be taken ill and die before she could see 
her again. If such a thing were to happen she 
could never forgive herself for having parted 
from her in anger. She thought of it all even 
after she had gone to bed, and when Nannie 
stepped out on her balcony she saw opposite to 
her a little white-robed figure standing at Jen- 
nie’s window. 

“Nannie, Nannie,” came the call across, “I 
want to say good-night.” 

“ Good-night,” answered Nannie. 

“ Are you mad with me ? ” 

“No, indeed. Are you mad with me?” 

“No, I was, but I’m not now. Please come 


128 


Little Sister Anne 


out as early as you can to-morrow morning. 
Come before breakfast down to the apple-tree.’^ 

“ All right.” 

“ Good-night. I’m so glad we aren’t mad. I 
couldn’t let the sun go down on my wrath.” 

One more good-night and each went into her 
own room feeling much relieved. The next 
morning Nannie woke with the feeling that 
something very unpleasant was over and done 
with. She sprang from her bed determined that 
the ugly events of the day before should not be 
repeated on this especial morning. It was quite 
early when she appeared under the apple-tree, 
but Jennie was already there. “ Hallo,” called 
Nannie when she saw her friend, “ you must have 
been up early enough to see the gnome turn the 
apples.” 

Jennie laughed. “No, I wasn’t. Isn’t this a 
fine morning ? ” 

“Yes, much nicer than yesterday,” replied 
Nannie ; “ yesterday was horrid.” 

“ Why, no, it wasn’t ; it was real pleasant.” 

Nannie did not reply but turned over a lit- 
tle stone with her foot, then she said with a 
shamefaced laugh : “ Well, if the weather was 


Making Up 129 

pleasant, I wasn’t. I suppose I was horrid in- 
stead of the weather.” 

“You weren’t exactly horrid,” said Jennie 
politely ; “ but you were so — so funny and snappy 
— and — and ” 

“I know. I was horrid. I began that way in 
the morning, and I want to tell you, Jennie, that 
I wasn’t going anywhere at all except to my 
room. I felt so ashamed that I didn’t want you 
to know, and so I said I was going somewhere 
and wouldn’t tell you that mamma had sent me 
to my room to stay all day to punish me for be- 
ing hateful and mean and bad. That’s why I 
didn’t come down into the garden to play.” She 
spoke hurriedly, her eyes fixed on the ground and 
her foot turning over and over the little stone. 

“Oh!” Jennie gave vent to the exclamation 
in a tone of relief and commiseration. “You 
poor thing,” she said. “ Wasn’t it dreadful ? I 
don’t wonder you were cross. When mamma 
shuts me up that way I could tear everybody’s 
eyes out.” 

“ Oh, does she ever shut you up ? ” The fact 
that Jennie sometimes went through a like ex- 
perience seemed to lessen the shame of it. 


130 Little Sister Anne 

“ Oh, yes, once in awhile. I think it is Aunt 
Maria who puts her up to it. She is always say- 
ing that mamma isn’t strict enough with me. 
Well, never mind ; it’s all over now, so don’t let’s 
talk about it any more. I’d no business to get 
mad and go off in that way.” 

“ Yes, you had, for I was hateful. What shall 
we do to-day ? ” 

“ I don’t know. What can we do ? Let’s plan 
something real nice. You think and I’ll think, 
and in five minutes we’ll tell each other.” 

They squatted down side by side and sat medi- 
tatively, hugging their knees. But before the 
five minutes had passed Nannie burst out with : 
“ I know what we’ll do. We’ll go out to Price’s 
and have a picnic.” 

‘‘Lovely!” exclaimed Jennie. “What a fine 
plan. But how shall we get there ? ” 

“ Oh, I’ll see if Biggy won’t take us. He will 
unless there is something more important that he 
wants to do. He likes to go fishing out there, 
and I’m pretty sure he’ll be willing to go to-day, 
for he hasn’t gone for ever so long. I’ll ask him 
as soon as I see him.” 

“ Then I’m going right in and will ask Hannah 


Making Up 131 

to make some little cakes. She can stir them up 
in a jiffy. What else would be nice to take, 
ISTannie ? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know ; sandwiches and hard- 
boiled eggs ; people always take those, and fruit. 
There’s a lovely spring out there and we can 
camp near it. You’ve never been out at Price’s, 
but it’s perfectly lovely ; different from these old 
brick pavements. 1 often think it is a mercy we 
have the garden, or I don’t know what we should 
do. I think this isn’t a very pretty town, for 
all the gardens are back of the houses where you 
can’t see them from the streets and the houses 
are so close together. If our houses weren’t on 
the corner they would seem as crowded as the 
rest.” 

“ Why do you call the place out there Price’s ? ” 

“ Because that’s the name of the man who lives 
there. Papa owns the place, at least — oh, I don’t 
know just how it is, but Price is the farmer. I 
believe he has it on what they call shares, though 
goodness knows what that means. Anyhow, we 
all feel that we can go out there whenever we 
want to, and they’re very nice to us. There, I 
hear Maggie tapping the gong. I’m awfully 


Little Sister Anne 


132 

hungry, for I didn’t eat much supper. Oh, I’m 
so glad this is to-day and not yesterday.” 

“ Come and tell me about the picnic as soon as 
you can,” Jennie sang out. 

“I will,” l^annie answered as she ran rapidly 
up the path toward the house. “ I’ll come right 
out as soon as I’ve had breakfast.” 

She did not wait to be seated at table before 
she began : “ Mamma, Jennie and I want to have 

a picnic out at Price’s, if Biggy will take us. 
You haven’t been fishing for ever so long, Biggy. 
Don’t you want to go? We won’t bother you a 
bit; we’ll just play by the spring and we’ll 
promise not to scare the fish and ” 

“A picnic !” exclaimed Louie before Nannie 
had fairly finished. ‘‘That would be just the 
thing. I was wondering what we could do to- 
day, Leila. That’s a fine plan.” 

Poor Nannie, her countenance fell. She had 
not intended such a general acceptance of her 
plan, but she did not say a word remembering the 
ugly yesterday. Louie had the fioor and went on 
with much animation. “ You can go and hunt up 
some of the boys, Lynn, right after breakfast, and 
Nannie, you and Jennie can take some messages 


Making Up 133 

to the girls we wish to ask. We shan’t have to 
start so awfully early ; even if we don’t go till 
afternoon, it will do.” 

“ Oh ! ” E’annie gave her brother a little ap- 
pealing look and he smiled reassuringly. 

“We might get the ’bus,” Louie went on, 
“ and have a real jolly party. It will hold about 
twenty. I’ll go right up and write the notes 
after breakfast.” 

When the meal was over, Nannie slipped out 
into the garden where she waited a few minutes 
till Jennie should come. She had such a re- 
signed expression on her face that Jennie felt 
that there was to be no picnic that day. “ Oh, 
we can’t go, can we?” she said. “Won’t your 
brother take us ? ” 

“Yes, I suppose so; but it is an awful bore 
sometimes to have a big sister. There’s Louie, 
she has just taken up my plan and wants to have 
a big picnic, a whole lot of her friends, and if 
there shouldn’t be room, of course, she’ll leave me 
out, and if we go I know how it will be ; very 
likely I’ll have to have Liz Bess tagging after me 
every step, and they don’t want to go till after- 
noon, and — oh dear I ” 


Little Sister Anne 


134 

Jenoie looked the sympathy she felt, but she 
was bound to make the best of it. “ Oh, never 
mind,” she said. “ I can help you take care of 
Liz Bess, and we shan’t have to stay with the 
grown-ups if we don’t want to. I should like to 
go this morning, but we’ll have a good time 
whenever we go. You let me know what time 
to be ready.” 

“Louie said something about going in Mr. 
Kline’s big ’bus, but I don’t know what she is 
going to do yet.” 

Just here Lynn came sauntering down toward 
them, his hands in his pockets. “ Well,” he said 
looking at Kannie, “ how soon can you be ready 
to go with me to Price’s ? ” 

Kannie sprang toward him. “ O, Biggy, 
aren’t you going with the others ?” 

He smiled down at her. “ In a certain sense I 
am, and in another I’m not. I don’t care to tag 
on to a whole raft of silly girls, and lah-de-dah 
men who patronize you and order you about, so 
I am going out this morning. I got out of it by 
telling Louie that I’d deliver her notes, hunt up 
her men, and order the ’bus; then I’d take the 
runabout and you two girls and go on ahead and 


Making Up 

pick out a good place. IIovv does the plan suit 
you ? ” 

Nannie clapped her hands delightedly. “ Oh, 
it suits beautifully. We’ll get ready right away. 
How soon do you want us, Biggy ? Shall we 
take a lunch ? ” 

“ Yes, you’d better take something, for Louie 
has decided that they will take supper. The ’bus 
is to be ordered for two o’clock, and they will 
come home by moonlight, but we can come when- 
ever we want to.” 

“ Biggy, you’re such a dear. I’ll go right in 
and get Maggie to help me to put up some 
lunch.” 

“ I’ll go get Hannah to help me,” put in Jennie 
eagerly. “ I expect we’ll be very hungry, and 
I’ll get her to give me a big basketful.” 

An hour later they were on their way, the two 
baskets safely stowed away, and the girls snug- 
gled in side by side. “ It’s much nicer to go this 
way,” declared Jennie ; “ we’ll have all morning 
to play in the woods, and then if we get tired of 
the grown people we needn’t stay as long as 
they do. Are they going to bring Liz Bess, 
Nannie ? ” 


Little Sister Anne 


136 

“ I don’t know. Mamma said she thought 
not. I suppose she will be dreadfully disap- 
pointed, though I think mamma will let her 
have Elsie Green over and let them have a tea- 
party. She was talking to her about it when I 
left. Are we going to the lake, Biggy ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ A lake ? ” Jennie cried out. ‘‘ How lovely I ” 

“We call it a lake, but it is just really a big 
pond. We have a boat on it. Are you going in 
the boat, Biggy ? ” 

“Yes, I thought I’d leave you on the shore 
while I went fishing.” 

“ And if you catch any fish we can have them 
for lunch. Won’t it be fun, Jennie ? ” 

Jennie agreed that it would be great fun, and 
when they reached the pretty pond set in the 
midst of the green woods her pleasure knew no 
bounds. Lynn set the baskets under a tree, 
fastened the horse, and then went to where the 
little rowboat was generally moored. “ Hallo ! ” 
he exclaimed. “ That’s funny, the boat isn’t 
here. Price has his own boat, so he couldn’t 
have taken it. I’d like to know who had the 
nerve to steal my boat.” 


Making Up 137 

Nannie’s eyes were scanning the pond, and in 
a moment she perceived the boat just turning a 
little bend. “ There it is,” she cried, “ and some 
one is in it.” 

“ I didn’t suppose it would shove itself off and 
go skirmishing around the pond without any 
one,” he replied. He shaded his eyes and looked 
across the glittering ripples. “ I’ll be switched ! ” 
he exclaimed. Then he stood quite still and 
waited to see the occupant of the rowboat come 
toward them. When he was within a short dis- 
tance Nannie saw that it was Jim Mason. 

“ Well,” she exclaimed, ‘‘ I think he has impu- 
dence to take our boat.” 

Lynn did not answer, but as Jim came within 
hailing distance he called out ; “ Say, Jim, who 
said you might make off with our boat ? ” 

“Nobody,” returned Jim carelessly. “You 
haven’t wanted it before, have you ? There 
isn’t any reason that I can see why I shouldn’t 
use it when it is lying idle. I haven’t hurt it. 
Hallo, Nannie. I have a big fish for you.” He 
jumped ashore and threw out a shining fish from 
the boat. Then he caught sight of the baskets. 
“ Well, I am in luck,” he exclaimed. “ You’ve 


Little Sister Anne 


138 

brought lunch, haven’t you ? We’ll cook the 
fish and have a good time generally. Going out, 
Lynn?” 

“ Yes,” returned Lynn shortly. 

“ Hope you’ll have luck. On second thoughts 
I reckon I’ll go with you. I was going to stay 
with the girls, but no doubt they’ll have a better 
time by themselves. Going to stay all day, 
girls ? ” 

“We don’t know,” Hannie answered; “you 
see there’s going to be a picnic this after- 
noon.” 

“There is? Well, isn’t that more luck! I 
certainly have struck it to-day. Who’s coming 
to the picnic ? ” 

“ Louie, and Miss Leila Boss and a lot 
more.” 

“Wait a minute, Lynn,” Jim called out, seeing 
that Lynn was about to push off, “ I want to hear 
about this.” 

“Who is he?” whispered Jennie. 

“Jim Mason,” returned Nannie in another 
whisper. 

“ Tell me,” Jim turned again to Nannie, “ when 
are they coming and how ? ” 


139 


Making Up 

“ They’ll be here about three in the ’bus.” 

“ That’s good ; I’ll get a ride back.” 

Jennie’s mouth formed a silent “ Oh ! ” and 
Jim laughed. “ That’s all right,” he said, easily. 
‘‘ They all know me, and very likely they might 
have invited me if they’d thought of it. Now 
I’m here I’m going to stay. It is always a wise 
plan to take all the good that comes along. Isn’t 
it, Nannie ? ” 

He shoved off the boat and then sprang into it, 
leaving the girls alone. 

“ He’s the most independentest boy I ever saw,” 
said Jennie. 

“Yes, he is,” returned Nannie thoughtfully, 
“ but all the boys like him ; he is so jolly and 
funny. Papa and mamma don’t like Lynn to go 
with him, though.” 

“Why?” 

“ They say he has a bad influence. I suppose 
it’s because he smokes cigarettes and does such 
things ; but you won’t be able to keep from liking 
him ; just you see.” 

Her prediction was quite true for when Jim 
returned he was the life of the party, flying 
around and gathering wood for the fire, cleaning 


140 


Little Sister Anne 


the fish, joking, laughing, thoughtful of every 
one, and ready to turn everything into fun. 
Lynn, who had begun by showing his displeasure, 
ended by laughing as heartily as any and by en- 
tering into anything that Jim proposed. 




CHAPTER Yin 

The Picnic 

When the ’bus came rattling up, the first 
comers were in high glee, but they stopped 
their fun to go meet the ’bus, which was filled 
with young folk, all laughing and talking at 
once. 

“ Heigho, ITan,” called out Mrs. Yincent, the 
married sister of one of Louie’s friends ; “ where 
did you come from ? ” 

“We came this morning,” Nannie replied, 
coming forward. Mrs. Yincent was a great 
favorite of hers, and she was very glad to see 
the bright little lady who always had a cheery 
word for her. Mrs. Yincent drew her to her 
side. “ You and your little friend come over and 
sit by me. Who is she, Nannie ? ” 

“She is Jennie Temple.” 

“ Oh, yes, I know ; her mother is a dear. Who 
is the tall boy? Oh, yes, I see now. I can’t 
help liking that boy, though I don’t exactly 


144 


Little Sister Anne 


approve of him, and if my Lester were a big boy 
I am afraid I shouldn’t want him for a chum of 
Lester’s. As it is, my little laddie is devoted to 
him. There is your brother, too, I see.” 

“ Why didn’t you bring Lester ? ” Nannie 
asked. 

Oh, because, my dear, these young folks 
didn’t want a three-year-old baby. He is spend- 
ing the afternoon with his grandma. Louie 
insisted on my coming as chaperon.” She 
laughed as she spoke, and indeed she looked little 
older than Louie herself. “ Tell me all you have 
been doing this morning,” she continued. 

“We played,” said Nannie. “We found a 
little dell down there, at least I think it was a 
dell, and there were dear little fairy toadstools 
and moss and all sorts of pretty things there, so 
we made little creatures out of sticks and pre- 
tended they were bewitched. We had a lovely 
time.” 

Mrs. Yincent laughed. “You imaginative 
little creature ; that is the kind of play you al- 
ways like, I remember ; and did Jennie like it, 
too ? ” She turned to Nannie’s friend. 

Jennie nodded. “ I love it. We played hide 


The Picnic 


H5 

and seek, too, and we picked some berries and 
some wild flowers ; then the boys came with the 
fish, and they made a fire and we had lunch. 
We had the best time.’’ 

“ I should suppose you did. Here comes Louie 
looking like a thunder-cloud. I wonder what is 
the matter.” 

Louie, who now came up, did indeed look much 
annoyed. “Nannie,” she said sharply, “how 
long has that boy been here ? Did you stop for 
him ? Did he come with you ? ” 

“ Jim, do you mean ? ” 

“ Yes, Jim, as you call him. It’s just like 
Lynn to try to force him on us.” 

“ Oh, but he was here when we came, and he 
would stay. Nobody asked him.” 

Louie gave a gesture of despair. “ It’s just 
what you might expect from such a person. 
Couldn’t he see that he wasn’t wanted ? If he 
can’t see I’ll show him.” 

“You can’t show him if he doesn’t want to 
see,” laughed Mrs. Yincent. “ Jim can’t imagine 
such a thing as not being wanted, and he doesn’t 
care a rap what you think so long as he has a 
good time. I shouldn’t bother, Louie. He is 


Little Sister Anne 


146 

very entertaining, and you may be glad of his 
presence before the afternoon is over.” 

“ But the idea of his staying when he was not 
invited.” 

“Oh, well, I shouldn’t mind. He no doubt 
knew that every one here would be an acquaint- 
ance, and as he is a friend of your brother’s, he 
thought it no harm to keep him company since 
the other boys are all older.” 

“ I am sure it is very kind of you to make ex- 
cuses for him,” said Louie, “ all the same I don’t 
intend to have anything to do with him.” And 
Louie marched off, her head held high. She was 
determined to ignore Jim completely, though he 
was already the centre of a merry group who 
seemed vastly entertained by his wit. The little 
company made a pretty picture scattered over 
the green grass by the shore of the sparkling 
lake, the girls in their light gowns and bright 
golf vests, the young men in outing costumes. 
In a short time they had separated into small 
groups. Some went out rowing, others wandered 
down the wooded paths, while the less energetic 
remained where they were. 

Hannie watched Louie’s red golf jacket dis- 


The Picnic 


H7 


appear down the road toward the spring, and 
after a little while she and Jennie concluded to 
follow. They had been a little afraid to explore 
too far, and now was their opportunity to see 
what lay beyond the edge of the wood. Kannie 
knew that there was a green meadow through 
which ran a little stream, and that along its 
banks wild forget-me-nots grew, and Jennie was 
very anxious to see these. 

“ Keal forget-me-nots, Nannie ? ” she asked as 
they trotted on side by side. 

“ Yes, real, righty ones, like those that grow in 
your Aunt Maria’s garden.” 

“We might dig some up and take them home 
and plant them,” Jennie proposed. 

“ So we can. That will be a fine plan.” 

“ You mean a fine plan-t.” 

“ Goosey ! I didn’t mean that,” returned Nan- 
nie laughing. “Oh, Jennie, what’s that?” She 
clutched her friend’s arm for a sudden shriek 
startled them ; then followed cries of “ Help I 
Help ! Oh ! Oh ! ” For a moment the two little 
girls stood stock still in affright ; then Nannie ran 
on as fast as her legs could carry her, Jennie fol- 
lowing close. Presently the green field showed at 


Little Sister Anne 


148 

the end of the path, and the cries became more 
and more distinct. A fence enclosed the field, 
and when the children reached it they saw a 
sight which terrified Xannie so that she added 
her shrieks to those of the person stumbling to- 
ward the fence in an agony of fright. 

“Oh, oh,” cried Nannie, “it is Louie I Louie! 
O, Jennie, see, see! That is Mr. Price’s bull 
and it is running after her. Oh, suppose she 
can’t get here. Suppose it should horn her, and 
trample on her, and stamp her to death. Oh, 
why did she wear that red jacket ? Oh, oh, 
somebody please come.” 

The bull was gaining upon poor Louie at every 
step, and she seemed really in great danger. If 
there was anything of which she was afraid it was 
a creature with horns, and Nannie was as easily 
scared at sight of even a motherly cow. She 
always gave every cow she met a wide range and 
would never venture nearer than she could help, 
so Louie’s plight appealed to her strongest sym- 
pathies. Her sister’s companions, Leila and an- 
other girl, had not ventured far into the field and 
had managed to clamber over the fence at the 
upper corner quite out of reach. The field was a 





“Help! Help! Oh! Oh!” 



r 





* 




« 




f 





X j 







I 


f 





t 






•4 



t 






4 






I 




The Picnic 


149 


large one and in her breathless flight Louie had 
covered about two-thirds of it, but she was fast 
losing strength, and more than once she stumbled 
and fell thus allowing the bull to gain upon her. 

But just when it seemed that she must give up 
and be gored to death by the ugly creature now 
so near, some one came running up behind Nan- 
nie. With a shout he vaulted the fence, tearing 
off his coat as he ran. He went like the wind 
toward the pursuing animal whose attention was 
attracted by this new disturber of his peace. 
“ Bun, Miss Louie, run ! ” came the shout to the 
exhausted girl. “ Bun for all you are worth.” 

With an idea of distracting the creature Louie 
swerved to one side and with a flnal effort ran 
faster than ever while the boy slipped between 
her and her enemy and threw his coat over the 
bull’s horns just at the right moment. 

“It is Jim! Jim!” cried Nannie. “Oh see, 
the bull doesn’t know which way to run. He 
can’t see with the coat over his head. Look, he 
has turned around and is going the other way, 
and Louie is safe. Oh poor, poor Louie.” 

Her sister came up panting and, with Nannie 
and Jennie to help her, she managed to climb the 


150 


Little Sister Anne 


fence, then sank down on the grass sobbing from 
sheer nervousness. Jim soon followed her, and 
stood laughing at the bull which was charging 
all over the field, pawing the ground and bellow- 
ing furiously. He had managed to rid himself of 
part of the coat, but the rest hung in shreds about 
his horns, flopping in his eyes and adding to his 
fury. 

Hannie crouched down by her sister and put 
her arms around her. “Poor Louie,” she said, 
“ how dreadful it was. I was so scared I couldn’t 
do anything but scream. I shall never forget 
how I felt when I saw those dreadful horns so 
close to you. Oh, just suppose Jim hadn’t come 
in time.” 

Louie lifted her head. “Jim? Was it Jim 
Mason? I didn’t know who it was, I was so 
frightened.” 

“ Yes, it was Jim. Are you all right, Louie ? 
Did you get hurt at all ? ” 

“I am all right, but I feel a little shaky.” 
She rose to her feet. “ Where is Jim ? ” she 
asked. 

“ Over there by the fence.” 

Louie walked straight over to him an(J held out 


The Picnic 


151 

her hand. ‘‘I wish to thank you,” she said. 
“ You came just in time to save me.” 

“ I reckon it wasn’t any too soon,” said Jim 
more embarrassed than was his wont. Then, to 
change the subject he said, “ Look how mad the 
old fellow is. He is a corker, isn’t he, when it 
comes to dancing around ? ” 

Louie gave a hasty glance at the bull and then 
turned her eyes away, saying in a trembling 
voice: “Just suppose you hadn’t stayed to our 
picnic. What would have become of me ? ” 

A little amused look crept into Jim’s eyes. 
“Just suppose I hadn’t,” he repeated laughing. 
“ I am rather glad I did, take it all in all.” 

“I am most fervently glad,” returned Louie 
earnestly. “ You’ll go home with us in the ’bus, 
won’t you ? ” 

“ If you don’t mind my shirt-sleeves.” 

“ I don’t mind anything,” said Louie with more 
meaning than she intended. “ Oh, what a shame 
that your coat is all torn to shreds, and all 
through my fault.” 

“ Hot your fault, your misfortune,” replied Jim. 
“ It wasn’t much of a coat anyhow. I can spare 
it.” 


Little Sister Anne 


152 

Louie’s friends now came up with exclamations 
and congratulations. It was agreed that Louie 
had had a very narrow escape and Jim was the 
hero of the hour. The rest of the day no one 
laughed more heartily at his jokes than Louie. 
He might not be a good companion for her brother, 
but he had probably saved her life and she was 
grateful. 

Lynn, who had been rowing a party around 
the pond, listened in silence to Nannie’s excited 
account of what had happened, and he too was 
so very cordial to Jim, that the 3^oung man felt 
that his lines had fallen in pleasant places. 

After recovering from her fright Louie made 
no more excursions, but Jim found some forget- 
me-nots for the little girls, in a moist spot on the 
outside of the field. It was thought just as well 
to leave the bull in possession, and Jim remarked 
that he had not worn two coats, so he would ask 
to be excused from a second meeting. Though 
Louie’s appetite was seriously affected by her en- 
counter, Jim made up for her deficiencies and she 
piled his plate with everything that he would eat, 
while touching very little herself. She was really 
thankful to him for more reasons than one, for 


The Picnic 


153 


he had a happy faculty of making the best of 
everything and was always ready with some 
bright proposition, or some witty remark that set 
the whole company laughing; in consequence 
every one voted it the best picnic of the season. 

Lynn started home before the others, taking 
the two little girls with him, but Nannie sat up 
to wait for her sister ; and when they had gone 
up-stairs she leaned her elbows on Louie’s lap, 
and watched the moon sailing through the drift- 
ing clouds. Leila had gone off with Lynn to get 
some soda water, but Louie declared that she was 
too tired to go, and Nannie was not invited. 

The moon which a short time before had swung 
in the sky, looking so queer with half its side 
broken away, had now recovered its lost bit and 
was nearly full. The two watched the moon and 
the clouds for a long time without saying a word ; 
then suddenly Nannie lifted her head and asked : 
“ How can Jim be bad, Louie, when he does such 
good things ? ” 

“Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know,” replied 
Louie in a troubled voice. “ It seems a great pity 
that any one with so much good in him must be 
shunned for the little bad, and yet the bad is 


154 


Little Sister Anne 


more important, for it does the harm. I don’t 
know what to think. I suppose father and 
mother must be right, but I must say I don’t 
blame Lynn for liking to be with such an agree- 
able boy as Jim.” 

“ Will he always be bad ? What makes him 
so?” 

“I hope he won’t always be. Maybe he will 
sow his wild oats and settle down after awhile. 
I am sure I don’t know what makes him so. One 
thing, he hasn’t any mother, and he does pretty 
much as he pleases, I imagine.” 

‘‘ What are wild oats ? ” Nannie asked. ‘‘ What 
does that mean ? ” 

‘‘It means that sometimes boys and young 
men get into bad company and do all sorts of 
wicked things that they are sorry for when they 
are older, because they see how foolish it was to 
do them.” 

“Oh.” Nannie only half understood. She 
hoped that her brother, whatever Jim might do, 
would never have any wild oats to sow. 




CHAPTER IX 
In Trouble 

It was not so very many days after the picnic 
that the question of wild oats came very close to 
ISTannie, and all that her sister had said troubled 
her very much. Louie had returned home with 
her friend Leila to make a visit of several weeks, 
and there were no more gay doings like picnics 
and launch parties and excursions and garden 
fetes. Many persons had gone to the seashore or 
the mountains and it was very quiet on the streets, 
doubly so to Nannie since Jennie had gone away 
with her parents to remain till September. Nan- 
nie made the best of her time at home, though 
she was lonely without her little playmate. 
Sometimes she would go up to see Miss Marvin 
Avith whom she talked sedately on serious sub- 
jects. Miss Marvin always seemed glad to see 
her, and never failed to produce the raspberry 
vinegar and seed cakes, Avhich it must be con 
fessed were often an added inducement, when 


158 Little Sister Anne 

Nannie considered the wisdom of making a call 
on the old lady. 

She had been to Miss Marvin’s one day and 
had gone home to dress for the evening. Just as 
she entered the house Lynn came out of the li- 
brary. He looked very pale and his lips were 
pressed closely together. He did not notice his 
little sister, but rushed up-stairs to his room, shut 
the door with a bang and turned the key. Nan- 
nie wondered what could be the matter, and 
stopped at her mother’s door intending to go in 
to ask her, but the sound of sobbing awed and 
disturbed her, so she went on to her own room 
which was next to her brother’s. She could hear 
Lynn moving about, opening bureau drawers and 
shutting them. 

Presently he unlocked the door and went up to 
the attic ; then Nannie saw him coming down 
again with a small trunk on his shoulder. She 
stood in the doorway of her room and watched 
him interestedly. He must be going away. As 
he reached the foot of the stairs she stepped out 
into the hall. “ O Biggy,” she exclaimed, ‘‘ are 
you going somewhere ? ” 

“ Yes,” he answered shortly. 


In Trouble 


159 

She followed him to the door of his room and 
looked up into his face wistfully as he set the 
trunk down on the floor. “ Oh,” she said, sadly, 
“everybody is going away, it seems to me. O 
Biggy, I wish you wouldn’t. Do you want to ? ” 

He did not reply, but his face became very sad, 
so sad that Hannie put both arms around his 
neck and laid her cheek against his. “ O 
Biggy,” she whispered, “ don’t look so ; it hurts 
me. O Biggy, I love you so much and I don’t 
want you to go away.” Then something hap- 
pened that Hannie never remembered having 
seen before : her brother dropped his face in his 
hands and began to sob, not like a child but like 
a man, great, shuddering, convulsive sobs that 
shook his whole body and distressed Hannie so 
that she, too, began to cry. “ O Biggy, Biggy,” 
she cried, “ what can I do ? What is it ? What 
is it ? Where are you going, where ? ” 

Presently her brother controlled himself and 
said: “Little sister Anne, I’ve no business to 
make you cry. I am a big baby. It’s too bad, 
and I’ll not do so any more, but I couldn’t help 
it when you said you loved me. You do love 
me, don’t you, Anne ? And you believe in me ? ” 


i6o Little Sister Anne 

He put his arm around her and drew her close to 
him. 

“ Why, of course I love you, next to mamma 
and papa ; and, why Biggy, what do you mean ? 
Certainly I believe in you.” 

“ Suppose somebody were to tell you that I 
had done something very wrong, very wicked. 
Would you believe it ? ” 

Hannie shook her head emphatically. “ Ho, I 

wouldn’t, not a word of it, not ” she paused 

and asked timidly : “ Has it anything to do with 

wild oats ? I know what that means.” 

Lynn smiled sorrowfully. “ Ho, not in my 
case.” 

“ Won’t you please tell me what it is then ? ” 

He did not reply but kept his arm around her 
and seemed to be thinking deeply. 

“ Won’t you tell me where you are going?” 
asked Hannie after a pause. 

“ I don’t know,” he said. “ I have to go 
somewhere to make some money. I can’t stay 
here while father believes me to be dishonest, 
and he says he would rather that I should go ; 
that I must make good the money stolen.” 

“ Oh ! ” Hannie gave a start. “ Oh ! ” she 


In Trouble 


i6i 


turned quite pale. “ Does he think ? ” the arm 
around her brother’s neck tightened its clasp, and 
a soft kiss fell on his forehead. “ He can’t think 
that, he can’t. O, Biggy, why don’t you tell 
him ? You couldn’t do such a thing. Why don’t 
you tell him so ? What makes him suppose you 
could ? Please tell me.” 

Lynn hesitated a moment, then he said : “ A 

large bill was taken from his office. I have a 
key, you know, and it was taken between six 
and eight o’clock last evening. Mr. Carelton is 
away, and there is no one besides myself who 
has a key. Hothing else was taken but the 
money.” 

“ Couldn’t a robber have stolen it ? Couldn’t 
some one have broken into the office after papa 
left it?” 


“He would have taken more. The,,£fty-Tiol- 
lars was with some other bills.^“ Father intended 
to put all into the safe, but some one came in and 
he overlooked them. Later he remembered and 
went back. The rest of the money was there, 
but the fifty dollars was gone.” 

“ Perhaps the wind blew it away.” 

“ It was under a weight.” 


i 62 


Little Sister Anne 


‘‘ Perhaps papa didn’t count right, and there 
wasn’t as much as he thought.” 

“ He remembers counting it. Some one came 
in late and paid him a hundred and fifty dollars. 
There was this one large bill and the rest was in 
smaller bills. He slipped them partly into an 
envelope after he had counted them, and laid it 
on his desk with the paper weight on top. Then 
some one came in and something very interesting 
came up that made father forget all about the 
money. He shut the desk down but didn’t lock 
it, meaning to go back right away, but he was 
detained till supper time, and thought the money 
would be safe till he could go back. A little 
after eight he did go, and that much of the 
money was gone. He didn’^t say anything about 
it, hoping it would turn up, but it didn’t.” 

“ But how could he think you took it ? ” 

There was a little catch in Lynn’s voice as he 
answered: “Because I was in the office right 
after supper. I went to get a photograph film 
that I had left there. Mike, the janitor, saw me 
go in. That is one reason ; the other is that this 
morning I went to Finck’s to get change for fifty 
dollars.” 


In Trouble 163 

‘‘O, Biggy!” There was the greatest dis- 
tress in Nannie’s voice. 

Her brother dropped the arm which was around 
her and moved away. “Now do you believe in 
me ? ” he asked half defiantly. 

Nannie sprang toward him. “ Yes, yes, yes,” 
she cried. “I know it wasn’t you. 0, Biggy, 
I know by your face that you think it was some- 
body else. Was it ” She went no further 

for Lynn lifted his hand. “ Never mind whether 
I think it was anybody,” he said. “I can’t tell 
what I think, and I’m not going to, and you must 
not, you must not, Nannie. If you think that 
any special person did it, you must not say so. 
Father says if I will prove by my efforts that I 
really want to do the right thing ; if I will earn 
the money to pay back what was taken, that he 
will forgive me, and perhaps he can bring him- 
self to believe in me again. I don’t care a rap 
about forgiveness for a thing I never did, but I 
do want him to believe in me.” 

“ I think he ought to,” said Nannie very de- 
cidedly. “ I don’t see how he can help it.” 

“ Appearances are against me, you see.” 

“ I know, but he ought to, anyhow, because 


Little Sister Anne 


164 

you are his own son. Doesn’t mother say you 
couldn’t have done it? Doesn’t she believe in 
you ? ” 

“ She wants to. She tries to, but they think I 
have been keeping bad company.” 

Nannie sat still thinking over all this dreadful 
situation. It was such an unheard of thing, she 
thought, for a father to accuse his son. “ Fifty 
dollars is such a lot,” she said after awhile, “ but 
you will come back when you have earned it, 
won’t you ? ” 

“ Perhaps.” 

‘‘ Oh, yes, yes, you will. What shall I do with- 
out you? We have always been such friends, 
Biggy.” 

“So we have, dear little Anne. You have 
been a comfort and a help to me. I am glad we 
have had this little talk ; I begin to feel better.” 

“You will write to me and tell me where you 
are.” 

“ Maybe so. Yes, I will, but you must promise 
not to tell if I do. Can you promise ? ” 

“Yes, I can. I will not tell any one but 
mamma. You will want her to know, but every 
one will know when the letters come to the door.” 


In Trouble 


165 

“ I shall want mother to know that I am well, 
but not where I am, because she would think 
that she ought to tell father, and it will be better 
for her to be ignorant of my whereabouts. I 
think she would rather have it so. ISTow I must 
pack my trunk.” 

‘‘ Let me help you. I can hand you the things 
as you want them. May I stay ? ” 

‘‘ Yes, you may stay. It is a comfort to have 
you. I don’t feel half as bad as I did.” 

Nannie watched him very gravely while he 
gathered together his belongings. She was 
thinking very hard. Presently she slipped out 
and going to her room took her little bank from 
its place on a shelf behind her books. She shook 
the contents out on a chair, then carefully 
wrapped up the money in a piece of paper. 
She took the little parcel with her to her 
brother’s room and when his back was turned 
she tucked the package into a corner of the 
trunk. 

But in shifting some of his belongings, Lynn 
caught sight of it. “What’s this?” he asked. 
“ Nan, did you put this in ? ” 

“ Please don’t open it now,” she begged. 


i66 


Little Sister Anne 


But he did not heed. The tears came into his 
eyes as he saw what it was. “ You blessed 
child,” he cried. “That’s just like you. All 
your savings. I remember that it is not the first 
time I have had them. What a sister you are. 
I have been ashamed, whenever I have thought 
of that other time.” 

“ You’ll take it ? Oh, please, Biggy.” 

“ Yes, I will, for I’ve not a penny in the world, 
although father thinks I have all that is left of 
the fifty dollars ; at least he said very sarcastic- 
ally, that he was not sending me away penni- 
less.” 

“ But mother would give you some money.” 

“ He forbade her.” 

“He didn’t forbid me,” said ISTannie trium- 
phantly. “I am so glad I didn’t spend it. I’d 
rather you’d have it than spend it on a — a — 
diamond ring. Biggy, do you think it will be 
very hard to earn fifty dollars ? ” 

“ It will be very hard to save that much when 
I have to earn my living too. I shall miss a 
great deal of school, and that is one of the hard- 
est things about it. I did want to make a good 
record this year, and father knows it, but he says 


In Trouble 167 

that is part of the punishment. The punish- 
ment ! ” Lynn laughed drearily. 

“ Oh, dear, oh dear, yes, I know,” said Nannie 
shaking her head in a troubled way. “ Biggy, I 
am going to try to make some money for you.” 

“ You tot ! What could you do ? ” 

“I don’t know. I’ll ask Miss Maria; maybe 
she can tell me. She said once to me if ever my 
brother was in trouble that I must give him all 
the love and something else — I forget what — 
that I could, for I’d never be sorry for having 
done it. Biggy, I wish you’d go tell Miss Maria 
all about it.” 

“ Nonsense ! Why, I don’t even know her.” 

“ But I do ; and maybe, just maybe, she would 
know somewhere that you could go to make 
money.” 

Lynn was silent. He felt very lonely, very 
helpless ; too proud to go to any of his father’s 
friends ; too inexperienced to know what course 
to take ; but determined to do something, feel- 
ing that he was not altogether guiltless. 

“ Don’t you think it would do to go ? ” Nannie 
asked, watching him, as he sat still, his eyes fixed 
on the floor. 


i68 


Little Sister Anne 


“ Oh, I couldn’t. I cannot bear the idea of 
any one’s knowing that father doesn’t trust me.” 

“ I don’t believe you would mind Miss Maria. 
She isn’t like anybody else. She is like some- 
body in a book, and she’d never tell, oh, no, 
never. She had a brother that she loved very 
dearly, and she would understand. I know she 
would.” 

After thinking it over, and after more urging 
from E’annie, Lynn said he would go, if, after she 
had heard the story from Nannie, Miss Maria 
desired to see him. He felt that he would like 
advice, and he did not know to whom he could go 
for it. His heart ached for his mother who was 
completely crushed by the affair. He would not 
talk it over with her, for she would either have 
to side with him or with his father, and either 
would be a sorry attitude for her to take. From 
his father he turned proudly. Louie was not at 
home, and this old lady, so remote from his ordi- 
nary acquaintances, seemed a refuge. 

When the trunk was packed Nannie set forth 
upon her errand, her whole heart in it. Miss 
Maria looked surprised to see her a second time 
that day, but she politel}'' invited her into the 


In Trouble 


169 

cool sitting-room. “ I came on business,” said the 
child very gravely. Do you mind my telling 
you something very private, Miss Maria ? ” 

“ Surely not,” she replied. 

Then J^annie poured out her tale with much 
simplicity, ending up with : “ And I just know 

he wouldn’t do such a thing. Miss Maria. I 
know it.” 

Miss Maria did not make any remark at once, 
but sat rocking back and forth, her eyes fixed on 
the sunlit garden. After a while she said : “ I 

think you are right, Anne, to believe in your 
brother. Tell him I should be very pleased to 
see him if he will take the trouble to call on me.” 

“ Now ? ” asked Nannie. ‘‘ May he come now ? 
Shall I tell him?” 

“ Yes, now or any time.” And Nannie sped 
back to her brother. She found him still in his 
room. He unlocked the door in answer to her 
gentle knock. 

Come,” said Nannie, “ Miss Maria said I was 
right to believe in you, so come. She says she 
will be pleased to see you.” 

Lynn followed her rather reluctantly. After 
all. Miss Marvin was a stranger. Why should 


Little Sister Anne 


170 

she trouble with his affairs ? But I^annie’s 
eagerness overcame his diffidence and he followed 
her up the street to Miss Marvin’s. The good 
lady was watching for them, and she greeted 
Lynn so kindly that it took away all feeling of 
boyish bashfulness. She asked a few shrewd 
questions, scanning the boy’s face as she did so. 
“Your little sister Anne has told me a great 
deal about you,” she said, “ and I think her judg- 
ment is a correct one. Never mind, my boy, if 
things do look dark ; do your duty and all will be 
well. To be sure, you acknowledge that you have 
not always been strong enough to resist tempta- 
tions, that you were in danger of bad influences, 
and that your father has some excuse for disap- 
proving of the company you have kept against 
his wishes. You know what the old copy-books 
used to tell us : ‘ Evil communications corrupt 

good morals.’ The best thing for you to do is to 
prove to your father that you have high principles 
in spite of appearances, and in spite of past weak- 
nesses. Now, let me think what is best to be 
done. Are you willing to work at anything ? ” 

“ Yes, Miss Marvin, I must be,” returned Lynn 
simply. 


In Trouble 


171 

“ Well then, perhaps I can help you a little. I 
have a farm about twenty miles down the 
country. My farmer finds it very hard to get 
help of any kind. I will give you a note to him 
and I have no doubt but that he can give you 
employment. He is a good man, and you will be 
safe in his hands. You will have your board, 
which is a point gained, and you will be able to 
save something out of your wages even though 
they may not be large. You can probably save 
more than you could if you were to try in any 
city for work. The pay in a city would be so 
little that you could not do more than earn your 
bare living, whereas here you will have good air 
and good food. You will have to work hard, but 
you are young and it will not hurt you. Does 
the plan suit you ? ” 

“ Indeed it does. Miss Marvin,’’ said Lynn 
gratefully. “I have always thought I should 
like farm work. It is very kind of you to give 
me this chance. It will seem so much more 
pleasant not to be away off from home, for this is 
not very far away.” 

“Ho, not very.” Miss Maria smiled kindly. 
She felt sure that if the lad were guilty he would 


Little Sister Anne 


172 

not be so anxious to be near home. She excused 
herself in the prim, precise, little way that she 
had, went to her old-fashioned escritoire and wrote 
a note which she gave to Lynn. “ You will have 
to go by train as far as Forest Spring,” she told 
him, “ and from there it is six miles to the farm. 
Unless you can get some one to give you a lift 
you will have to walk.” 

“ Six miles is nothing to walk,” Lynn re- 
marked. 

“ Yes, but I am not sure about the afternoon 
trains, and it is quite late in the day now. You 
probably had better not start till morning.” 

“ Couldn’t I go as far as Forest Spring to- 
night ? ” 

“ If there is a train, but I doubt it. I will see 
if I have a time-table.” She searched through 
her desk and found one which bore out her 
supposition ; there was no train stopping at that 
station after four o’clock and it was already too 
late. 

‘‘I simply cannot face father again,” said 
Lynn. 

“ Then come and spend the night here.” 

‘‘ Oh, but Miss Marvin ” 


In Trouble 


m 


“ I assure you I shall be delighted, if not for 
your own and your sister’s sake, for that of the 
dear brother who left me once and never came 
back. I repeat it, my dear boy, I shall be de- 
lighted if you will accept an old woman’s in- 
vitation. You can then start bright and early 
and be at the farm betimes.” 

So Lynn made no further protests, but went 
home and said good-bye to his mother, telling 
her not to fret, that all would be right with him, 
and that he did not intend to go so far off that 
he could not return home within a few hours. 
“ I’d rather not tell you where I am going,” he 
said, “ for I don’t want father to know, but Miss 
Maria Marvin knows, and it is all right.” 

The fact that Miss Maria knew, reassured 
Mrs. Hollis, and though she shed many tears 
over her boy’s departure, she felt more content 
than she could have thought possible. 

Hannie, too, was invited to stay all night at 
Miss Maria’s, so she was on hand to give her 
brother a parting kiss and to see him off with 
cheerfulness. ‘‘ I will write to you in Miss 
Maria’s care,” he told her; “she said that I 
might.” 


Little Sister Anne 


174 

All this happening made a new bond between 
Miss Maria and Nannie, whose visits to her old 
friend became more and more frequent, for it 
seemed very lonely at home nowadaj^s. Mr. 
Hollis rarely had a word to say, and Mrs. Hollis’s 
face wore so sorrowful a look that Nannie knew 
that she must be constantly thinking of Lynn. 
His vacant place at the table and his empty 
room, added to the general feeling of loneliness ; 
and Nannie began to long for school to open, 
when she would have her schoolmates to play 
with and when she would have more to occupy 
her time. 



CHAPTER X 
Nannie's Visit to Lynn 



CHAPTER X 

Ndttme's Visit to Lynn 

“I WISH I could help Biggy to make some 
money,’’ said Nannie one day to Miss Maria. 
The two were in the sitting-room and Nannie had 
a tray full of shells before her. She was very 
fond of playing with them. The choicer ones 
she called people, and the larger, coarser ones 
were animals. Just now she had a whole flock 
of white shell sheep parading across the table, 
while in a card-house were made to dwell a 
shining blue father shell, a delicately-glistening 
pearly mother shell, and a group of tiny rosy- 
pink shells, who were, of course, the children of 
the family. She often talked aloud as she 
played, much to Miss Maria’s entertainment. “ I 
don’t see why this baby won’t stay in its sister’s 
arms,” she remarked, vainly trying to adjust a 
small pink shell upon one somewhat larger. 
“ There, Bobby, you will have to get the dog 


178 Little Sister Anne 

and go after the sheep ; they are all running 
away.’^ 

Miss Maria turned her head and smiled. The 
chatter of the child pleased her. “ I think I shall 
have to leave those shells to you in my will,” she 
said. 

Nannie looked startled. “ Oh, but you’re not 
going to die yet,” she said. 

“I hope not, just yet, but life is very un- 
certain,” she added tritely. 

“I might be a grown-up woman when you 
die,” Nannie speculated upon the subject, “and 
then I couldn’t play with shells, but I’d love 
them just the same, and my children could play 
with them.” She regarded the shells with a new 
interest. Perhaps some day they would be her 
very own. She would keep them in a queer old 
cabinet just as Miss Maria did. “ Where did you 
get the cabinet you keep them in ? ” she asked, 
speaking her thought. 

“ It was my grandfather’s.” 

“ Oh ! ” There didn’t seem to be much hope 
of Nannie’s getting one like it. 

“ Why do you ask ? ” Miss Maria said. 

“ I was thinking I should like one just like it to 


Nannie^ s Visit to Lynn 179 

keep the shells in when I get them,” Nannie re- 
plied, with perfect honesty. 

Miss Maria laughed. “ This is the first time I 
have ever known any one truthful enough to tell 
me what she expected to do with what I should 
leave her when I died.” 

“ Oh, I forgot.” Nannie turned very red. “ I 
didn’t think about that part of it.” 

“ I know you didn’t,” Miss Maria told her. 
Then seeing the child’s confusion she changed 
the subject. “ What was it you were saying 
about making money for your brother?” she 
asked. 

“ I was just saying I wished I could make some. 
It will take so long for him to pay back all that, 
and he does hate so to lose any time from school. 
Do you think there is any way I could make 
some money ? You know there was Phebe, the 
blackberry girl. She 

“ ‘Gathered blackberries enough, and carried them to town, 
To buy her bonnet and her shoes. ’ 

Don’t you remember ? ” This was one of Nan- 
nie’s favorite sets of verses in one of Miss Maria’s 
“Jane” books. 

“Yes, I remember; but it is a little late for 


i8o Little Sister Anne 

blackberries, and I don’t believe your mother 
would approve of your going out into the hedges 
along lonely country roads and getting yourself 
all scratched up. Let us think of something 
more suitable.” 

Nannie laid down the shell she was holding 
and went to Miss Maria’s high-backed chair, lean- 
ing her head against the curved top. “I wish 
you were my Aunt Maria,” she said. “ I haven’t 
any great-aunt at all, and I think it is very nice 
to have one. Jennie has two and I think it isn’t 
fair.” 

A funny little pucker showed around Miss 
Maria’s mouth, as she looked brightly over the 
tops of her spectacles at the little girl by her 
side. “Then you don’t want me dead for the 
sake of the shells.” 

“ O Miss Maria ! ” 

“ You may say Aunt Maria, if you like.” 

“ Oh, may I ? I should like to very much.” 

“We were talking about making money. I 
quite approve of work for little girls. Too many 
spend their time in idleness these days. They 
did not do so when I was young. We were 
always taught not to waste our golden moments, 


Nannie^ s Visit to Lynn i8i 

and from the time I was four or five years old I 
had my daily tasks to perform. Do you know 
how to darn nicely, Anne ? ” 

“ No, Miss — I mean. Aunt Maria. I did try 
to do a hole in my stocking one day, but it all 
puckered up and looked like a bag.” 

“ I will teach you to darn if you will be patient 
enough to learn, and then you can help me with 
my house linen. I will pay you for it when you 
can darn a hole nicely. Should you like to try 
that ? ” 

‘‘ Oh, yes, if it were for Biggy. Shall we be- 
gin right away ? ” 

“ You have no thimble here. To-morrow we 
can begin. You may come any time after eleven 
o’clock and bring your work-basket. You had 
better tell your mother that I am going to teach 
you to darn, and that you are coming to me 
ever}^ day for a lesson. I have no doubt that she 
will consent.” 

“ Oh yes, she will, I know. She will be very 
glad and say it is very kind of you to take the 
trouble.” She touched one of the little gray 
curls that bobbed up and down each side of Miss 
Maria’s head. “I wish I had curly hair,” she 


i 82 


Little Sister Anne 


said. “ I think it is so pretty. I’d like to have 
gray curls when I am old.” 

The funny little pucker came again around Miss 
Maria’s mouth. Nannie’s fearless little ways 
pleased her. Jennie stood more in awe of her 
aunt, and did not dare take the liberties that 
Nannie did. She would never in the world have 
been intrepid enough to touch one of those little 
curls, though she had often wished to. “ Now, 
put away your shells,” said Miss Maria, “ for it is 
nearly time for Hagar to set the table.” 

“ I wish I could set it.” 

“ I am afraid to have you, my dear, for if you 
were to break a piece of my old china it could 
never be replaced, but you may help Hagar do 
some other things, on one condition.” 

“ What is it ? ” 

“ That you stay and take dinner with me.” 

“ Oh ! may I ? That would be lovely. I just 
love Hagar’s apple pies, and I saw her put one 
out to cool.” 

“ I don’t doubt that your sharp eyes saw,” re- 
plied Miss Maria, laughing. “Well, then, put 
away your shells and then run home and tell 
your mother you will stay if she will allow you. 


Nannie^ s Visit to Lynn 183 

You might bring your work-basket back with 
you and we could begin work this afternoon.” 

Nannie was not long in carrying out the sug- 
gestion, and soon was back with the work-basket. 
That afternoon she took her first lesson in darn- 
ing. Tedious work it proved to be. Miss Maria 
was so very particular; each thread must be 
taken up just so, and poor little Nannie more 
than once half regretted that she had undertaken 
anything so laborious. But the thought of h«r 
brother always spurred her on, and after a time 
when she began to do better. Miss Maria gave her 
a towel to work upon, and for this she was to 
receive her first pay. 

When she had earned her first dollar Nannie 
was the proudest little girl in town. She lost no 
time in writing to her brother a funny, little, 
mixed-up letter, but so full of love and devotion 
that the boy had a good cry over it, and was so 
filled with homesick longing that he could scarcely 
endure his exile. His answer to the letter showed 
this. She handed it to Miss Maria to read, and 
that good woman looked very grave when she gave 
it back to her. She was very thoughtful for a 
while, and then she said, so suddenly, as to make 


Little Sister Anne 


184 

Nannie almost jump : “ How would you like to 
go down to the farm with me to-morrow ? ’’ 
Down went the piece of work with which 
Nannie was busy. She flew to Miss Maria and 
flung her arms around her neck, giving her a hug 
such as that lady had not received for many a day. 
“ There, there, child,” she exclaimed. “ I didn’t 
expect to be smothered.” 

“ Oh, do you mean it ? That we are to see 
Biggy and the farm where he is working ? Oh, 
it is too lovely ! Do you really mean it ? ” She 
stood off regarding Miss Maria with very bright 
eyes and flushed cheeks. 

“ I generally go down two or three times a year,” 
said Miss Maria. Josiah Tubbs gets along very 
well and I suppose is as honest as any one would 
be, but every one stands looking after, and I like 
to see what condition the place is in. We must 
make an early start. I shall take the seven-thirty 
train, so you’d better stay here all night, if your 
mother will permit.” 

“ Shall I go ask her now ? ” 

“ No, I think there is no need of being in a 
hurry ; you’d better finish your work first.” 
Nannie returned to her task, her thoughts full 


Nannie's Visit to Lynn 185 

of the delights which the morrow promised. 
“Don’t slight your work,” Miss Maria charged 
her when she saw how fast Nannie’s fingers were 
flying in her hurry to get through. “ You have 
plenty of time ; the train does not start till to- 
morrow morning, remember.” 

“ I can’t help going fast,” said Nannie. “ I am 
so full of jump and skip and scream.” 

“ Then you’d better put down your work for a 
moment and run up and down the garden as fast 
as you want to ; that will let off the steam.” 

Nannie threw down her work and went flying 
out into the garden. Up and down the walks 
she ran till she was tired out and ready for her 
darning again. She settled back into her chair 
warm and panting. 

“ I’m afraid you overdid it,” remarked Miss 
Maria. 

“ Oh no, I’m just warm for a minute. Just 
think. Miss Maria, every dollar I earn brings 
Biggy home a day sooner.” 

“ Perhaps even better than that.” 

“ I am so happy that I don’t feel a bit like 
working. I think you will have to tell me about 
those poor little children who have to work in 


i86 


Little Sister Anne 


factories or in shops. It makes it seem very easy 
then for me to be sitting here working only a 
little while every day.” 

Then Miss Maria told her of the half-starved, 
hard- worked children in factory towns, and of 
others trying to make a living as best they could, 
living in wretched tenements and used to only 
harsh words and misery. 

Yet, in spite of this picture of contrast, Kan- 
nie drew a long sigh of relief when her darning 
for the day was done, and she was free to go 
home to get her mother’s consent for the visit of 
the next day. 

“ It seems to me,” said Mrs. Hollis, when Nan- 
nie made her request, “ that you and Miss Mar- 
vin are becoming very intimate.” 

“We are,” returned Nannie, seriously. “You 
see Jennie isn’t at home, and hardly any one else 
is, and I like to be with Miss Maria. O 
mamma, I shall see Biggy, and it’s been so long 
since he went away ; it seems like a whole year. 
Do you send your love to him ? ” 

“Indeed I do. Tell him it will be a happy 
day when he comes back to us.” 

“ When will Louie come home ? ” 


Nannie* s Visit to Lynn 187 

“ Not for a week yet.” 

“Mamma, does she know? Will you tell 
her?” 

“ She knows that Lynn is away, but does not 
know why he went. I shall not tell her. It 
would hurt her dreadfully to think her brother 
could do such a thing.” 

Nannie gazed at her mother in surprise. “But 
mamma, he didn’t. Oh, don’t say you believe 
he did.” 

Her mother shook her head sadly. “ I don’t 
know what to believe, my dear.” 

“ How can you ? How can you ? I knew 
papa thought so, though I don’t see how he can, 
but you, mamma, how can you ? ” 

“ You are very confident, Nannie.” 

“ Of course I am.” 

“ What makes you ? ” 

“ I can’t help it because it is Biggy. I feel in- 
side of me that he could never do that. I can’t 
help knowing ; and I can’t help feeling angry at 
papa either. I try not to, but I can’t help it.” 

“ Dear child, he believes he is doing right. He 
has a great heartache, daughter. It has been a 
terrible blow to him. You do not know how he 


i88 


Little Sister Anne 


has suffered. He thought he was doing right in 
sending your brother away, in making him un- 
derstand how hardly money comes to those who 
work for it. He thought it was the only way to 
teach him.” 

“ But he didn’t have to send him away,” Han- 
nie persisted. 

“ Let us not talk of it any more,” said Mrs. 
Hollis gently. “My poor, poor boy. How I 
long to see him.” 

“ So do I, and I am going to to-morrow. Are 
you going to tell papa ? Please don’t, mamma. 
Does he know where Biggy is ? ” 

“ He knows that he is safe and that he is at 
work. I have told him only that. I promised 
that I would not try to see my boy, but I do 
write to him.” 

Hannie started off in high feather the next 
morning. It was quite early when she and Miss 
Maria reached Forest Spring. Only a few per- 
sons stood around the station, but Miss Maria 
found some one willing to drive them to the farm. 

“ Where do you suppose Biggy will be ? ” asked 
Hannie. “Won’t it be a s’prise to him. Aunt 
Maria ? ” 


Nannie^ s Visit to Lynn 189 

“ I think it will. There, do you see that red 
roof through the trees? That is the farm- 
house.” 

Nannie stood up and craned her neck that she 
might see better, but in a few minutes the house 
was in plain sight, and then she began to be on 
the lookout for her brother. She did not see any 
one who looked in the least like him, however, 
and when they reached the barn they were met 
by Mr. Tubbs, who told them that Lynn had 
gone to the blacksmith shop. This was a great 
disappointment to Nannie and she was ready to 
cry. To miss one moment of the time that she 
might have been with her brother seemed very 
hard. 

‘‘You must have passed right by,” said Mr. 
Tubbs. “ I guess he was in the shop when you 
came along. If he had looked he would have 
seen you. Well, he’ll be back by dinner time. 
You come in and rest up a bit.” 

“ What’s the matter with my taking her along 
back with me ? ” said the young man who had 
driven them from Forest Spring. “I can drop 
her there at the shop and she can come along with 
her brother. How’d he go ? ” 


190 


Little Sister Anne 


“ Took the pair of grays in the spring wagon. 
He was to stop at the mill on his way back. 
That’s all right, sis; you can go back with Joe 
and stop there at the shop, or maybe you’ll meet 
the team if they have finished shoeing the 
horses.” 

Therefore Miss Maria got out and went up to 
the house, while Nannie drove off with the young 
man. “ Nice boy you sent me,” she heard Mr. 
Tubbs say as Joe gathered up the reins. “ Didn’t 
know much when he came, but he is willing as 
the day is long, and is lots of help now he’s tum- 
bled to things.” He went on talking as Nannie 
drove off. The blacksmith shop was about two 
miles away, but before they reached it Nannie 
espied a pair of gray horses coming toward 
them. They were driven by a youth in a broad- 
brimmed farmer’s hat and rough clothes. It 
couldn’t be Biggy, Nannie thought, but a nearer 
look told her that it was. 

Biggy, Biggy,” she shrilled out. “ There he 
is. Oh, let me get out.” The young man driv- 
ing stopped his horses, and without making any 
farewells, Nannie clambered down and went with 
flying feet toward the wagon now nearly up to 


Nannie's Visit to Lynn 191 

them. To Lynn’s great surprise he saw a little 
figure running through the dust and calling ; 
“ O Biggy, Biggy, here I am ! Here I am ! ” 

The boy drew up his horses with a jerk and 
was at her side in a twinkling. “ Why, sister 
Anne, sister Anne, you dear little sister, where 
did you come from ? ” he exclaimed, picking her 
up bodily and kissing her. 

“ I came with Miss Maria. She is at the house 
now. They said you had gone to the blacksmith’s 
shop and then Joe, that’s the young man that 
drove us up, said he’d bring me back to meet 
you. Oh, he’s gone and I didn’t thank him. He 
was real nice, too. He gave me an apple and 
two peppermint lozenges.” 

“ That was certainly very nice,” laughed Lynn. 
“ How are they all at home ? ” 

“ They are pretty well. Mamma sent her love 
to you and says she longs to see you home again. 
Louie is still away. O Biggy, how brown you 
are, and you are ever so much thinner.” 

“ Yes, but I’ve added to my muscle. I tell you 
I’m not sorry I came. It is plain living and hard 
work, but they are kind people, and it hasn’t done 
me a bit of harm.” 


192 


Little Sister Anne 


“ I’ve two whole dollars for you. I earned 
them myself. IVe been working, too.” 

“ You mustn’t, Nan. I can’t take the money.” 

“ Oh, but you must. I did it for you so you 
could come home sooner. How soon do you 
think you can come ? ” 

‘‘ Oh, not for some weeks yet.” 

“ But you’ll miss school ; it begins next week.” 

“ Can’t help it. I will earn that fifty dollars 
or die. How does father seem?” he asked 
abruptly. 

“ Oh, so quiet. He hardly ever talks, and he 
goes about with his head down. He never jokes 
any more and he gets up and leaves the table the 
minute he has finished a meal. I hardly ever see 
him.” 

Lynn said nothing for a moment and then he 
asked : “ Have you happened to see anything of 

Jim Mason ? ” 

“ No, I’ve not seen him once. Somebody told 
me he had gone to the seashore.” 

“Humph! I suppose you can tell people I 
have gone to the country for my health,” said 
Lynn. 

“We tell them you have gone to the country.” 


Nannte's Visit to Lynn 193 

“ My, but the fellows will wonder at not seeing 
me when school opens. I was so fierce about 
making a good record this year. Well, it can’t 
be helped,” he added philosophically. 

“ Tell me what you have to do on the farm ? ” 

“Oh, I help around generally. Chop wood, 
milk cows, feed the stock. Funny, isn’t it ? I 
don’t half mind it, though. I couldn’t have come 
to a better place, thanks to Miss Maria.” 

“ She’s my Aunt Maria. She said I might call 
her aunt.” 

“Well, she’s the stuff for an aunt. It made it 
dead easy for me having that note from her to 
Mr. Tubbs. I might have been starving to death 
by this time but for her. I might have gone to 
some town — that’s just what I would have done 
— and have spent my last penny while I was 
looking for work. If I couldn’t have found it, I 
would have starved before I would have gone 
back.” 

This doleful picture was too much for I^annie’s 
tender heart and the tears gathered in her eyes. 
“ O Biggy,” she cried clutching him as if, even 
then, she saw starvation staring him in the face. 

Lynn laughed, but cuddled her up closer to 


194 


Little Sister Anne 


him. “ Don’t worry,” he said. “ I get plenty to 
eat and have an appetite I Avouldn’t sell for a 
farm. You watch me at dinner-time. That re- 
minds me we must not go jogging along at this 
pace. Get up, Dick.” He touched the horses 
lightly with the whip and they trotted on 
briskly. 

As they drew near the house a great bell be- 
gan to ring out from near the kitchen. It was 
swung high in the air and was pulled back and 
forth by means of a long rope. Lynn helped 
Hannie down, then he turned the horses into the 
pasture and ran the wagon into the carriage 
house ; after this had been done they went to- 
ward the house where a plentiful dinner awaited 
them. 

Hannie noted with surprise that Lynn ate of 
everything offered him, and that even those 
things which he spurned at home he partook of 
with a relish. “I’ve a mighty good appetite,” 
he explained as he saw Hannie looking at the pile 
of cabbage on his plate. “ I don’t despise cab- 
bage, now, Han.” 

Hannie found that she, too, was hungry after 
her early breakfast and long drive, though the 


Nannie^ s Visit to Lynn 195 

dinner was served two hours earlier than she was 
accustomed to having it. After dinner Miss 
Maria and Lynn had a long talk. “ It was so 
good of you to bring Nan,” the boy said. “ I 
don’t know how to thank you for all your kind- 
ness, Miss Maria.” 

“No thanks are necessary,” she returned. “ I 
am sure Mr. Tubbs thinks it is an advantage on 
his side. He says you have worked well.” 

“I have tried to do my best. I was pretty 
awkward at first, but I’m not sorry I came.” 

“ That is right. I believe in you, Lynn. No 
boy who had committed the evil of which you 
are suspected could have been so straightforward 
and conscientious as you have been while here, 
and I want you to know that Maria Marvin be- 
lieves in you, and I’ll tell your father so if I get 
a chance.” 

“Thank you, Miss Maria,” returned Lynn, 
fiushing deeply ; “ you don’t know how good that 
sounds. I felt as if all the world except Nan 
was against me.” 

“ She’s a rare little sister.” 

“ She has just kept me in heart, and that’s all 
there is about it.” 


Little Sister Anne 


196 

“Well, well, never mind, it will all come out 
right, mark my words. Meantime, do your duty 
and you may live to be glad of the experience, 
hard as it seems now. But there, we have to 
go. Where is Anne ? We must get back before 
dark and you are to drive us to the station.” 

A little later they were on their way to Forest 
Spring where Nannie parted from her brother, 
feeling much more content after having seen him 
in his comfortable surroundings. 



f 






/ ^ 




CHAPTER XI 


Poor Jim 

Yery soon after this school opened, and Nan- 
nie had the satisfaction of Jennie’s company in 
her walks back and forth. But one day it hap- 
pened that Jennie was not with her, having left 
school a little earlier than usual that she might 
meet an appointment with her dentist, and it 
happened that on this particular morning Nannie 
came face to face with Jim Mason. 

“ Hallo ! ” said Jim when Nannie smiled up at 
him. “I’ve not seen you this long while. 
What’s become of Lynn ? All I can get out of 
the fellows is that he is in the country. Seems 
to me he’s making a mighty long stay of it. 
Isn’t he coming back to school? He was 
keen enough for it when I saw him. I’ve just 
come home from the seashore, and haven’t had a 
chance to come to your house. When’s Lynn 
coming back ? ” 


200 


Little Sister Anne 


“He isn’t coming back just yet,” answered 
Nannie, a flush mounting to her tell-tale face. 
“ He has to stay away a little while longer.” 

“He isn’t sick, is he?” asked Jim, scanning 
the downcast eyes and averted head. 

“No.” 

“ Doesn’t he want to come back ? ” 

“ Ye-es, oh, yes, he wants to come.” 

“Then, why in the mischief See here. 

Nan,” he grasped the child’s shoulder and then 
turned her face toward his, “what’s wrong? 
There’s some mystery. Now just tell me all 
about it.” 

There was a troubled look in the honest eyes 
that were raised to Jim’s while Nannie shook her 
head and replied : “ I can’t.” 

“ But you must. Look here ” he paused 

and seemed plunged in thought for a moment, 
then he went on, “ I’ve got to get to the bottom 
of this. Lynn’s a jolly good fellow, and he has 
stood up for me more times than one. Come, 
let’s walk up this street to the old Kent place. 
We can sit on the steps there and no one will 
disturb us. How’s your sister ? ” 

“Louie? She’s well. She has not been at 


Poor Jim 201 

home very long. She made Miss Leila a long 
visit, you know.” 

“ Yes, I know.” Jim lapsed into silence. He 
seemed unlike his merry, careless self, and Nan- 
nie noticed that he did not look well. When 
they had reached the Kent place they sat down 
together on the porch out of the heat of the sun. 
“Now,” said Jim, “tell me all about it.” 

“ I’m afraid I oughtn’t to,” returned Nannie 
hesitatingly. “ Biggy wouldn’t like it.” 

“Yes, he would ; I’ll answer for that. What’s 
the trouble about ? ” 

Nannie did not speak for a moment, then she 
said in a low voice : 

“ It was about some money.” 

“ Fifty dollars,” said Jim looking very serious. 

“ Yes. Why, how did you know ? ” 

“ Did your father think Lynn took it ? ” said 
Jim in response. “ Tell me, Nan, was that it ? ” 

“Yes,” she spoke very low, “that was it.” 

“ And he sent him away to this place, wher- 
ever it is ? ” 

“ No, he went there to earn some money to pay 
it back. Papa doesn’t know just where he is. 
He said he must pay it back before he could come 


202 


Little Sister Anne 


home again. It nearly broke our hearts, and I’ve 
been trying to help him, Jim. I earned two 
whole dollars, so he will have two days less to 
stay. Oh, how glad I shall be to have him again. 
I miss him so, you can’t think.” 

“ Humph I ” Jim rested his chin in his hands 
and sat silent so long that Hannie thought he 
had forgotten her. But after awhile he gave a 
long sigh and then he said: “ Well, he didn’t 
take it. I know that.” 

“ Oh, no,” Hannie caught his arm, “ he didn’t, 
he didn’t. I always said my Biggy couldn’t do 
such a wicked thing. I always said so.” 

A curious expression came over Jim’s face and 
he gently removed Hannie’s hand from his arm. 
“ What made your father think Lynn had taken 
it ? ” he asked. 

“Because he was the only one in the office 
after papa left it, and when papa got back a little 
later the money was gone, and L3mn told him he 
had been there.” 

“ Lynn told him ? ” 

“ Yes, and Mike, the janitor, saw him go in.” 

“ There wasn’t any one with Ly^nn ? ” 

“ He didn’t say so, and Mike didn’t.” 


Poor Jim 203 

“ Humph ! ” Jim lapsed into silence again. 
After a while he rose to his feet. “ I know who 
took the money,” he said. “ I reckon I’d better 
see your father and tell him whom I suspect, or 
rather who really did take the money, and then 
Lynn can come home.” 

Nannie stood waiting to go. “ May I 
tell mamma,” she said. “ She has felt so dread- 
fully about it. She didn’t want to believe it 
about Biggy, but father said it must be so, and 
he wouldn’t let mamma give Lynn any money to 
go away with, and wouldn’t let her go to see him 
or anything. I went, though. Miss Maria took 
me, and I was so glad to see him I almost cried. 
You know, I love Biggy the very best and he 
loves me. Louie and Liz Bess don’t love him 
half as much as I do.” 

Jim looked at her wistfully. “ I wish I had a 
little sister,” he said, “ but maybe after all it’s 
better that I haven’t, for I’d have to leave her. I 
am going away. Nan, to California, if I don’t 
have to go somewhere else, and it’s doubtful if I’ll 
ever come back. The doctors say I can’t live in 
this climate and I’m going to leave before very 
long.” 


204 


Little Sister Anne 


“ Oh, are you ? I’m sorry, Jim, but I’m glad 
you haven’t any little sister to leave, for she 
would be so sorry.” 

“ Do you think so ? Maybe she wouldn’t.” 

“Oh, she would, for you could be awfully 
nice, Jim, if you didn’t smoke cigarettes and do 
things, you know, things that make people say 
you’re not proper company for their sons.” 

“Do people say that? No, I suppose I am 
not the best fellow in the world. Well, I’ll not 
be here long to bother any one.” 

The tears came to Nannie’s eyes. “ O Jim,” 
she said softly, “ I don’t like to have you say 
that. Maybe people don’t know how nice you 
are. You really are. Just think how brave you 
were when you saved Louie.” 

“ If I had a sister,” Jim went on, as if the 
idea would not leave him, “ I’d try to be better.” 

“ Try to be anyhow. Please do. I’d love to 
have you be dear and good, so you could come to 
our house every day.” 

“ I shall never come any more,” replied Jim 
with something like a sob in his voice. “ But, 
Nannie, I’m going to write to you sometimes, 
and please write to me and remind me to be 


Poor Jim 205 

good,” he added, with a flash of one of his old 
smiles. 

“ Oh, I will, I promise you. I can’t write very 
well, but I’ll do my best. I really am sorry you 
are going. You didn’t say,” she went on, shyly, 
“ that I might tell mamma.” 

“ Oh, yes, tell her. I can trust her and you, 
too. Maybe you’ll be glad enough to hear that 
I’m gone when you know all about it. Your 
father will tell you. Won’t you kiss me good- 
bye, N'annie ? I shall not see you again.” 
Nannie lifted her sweet mouth without hesita- 
tion ; then, never waiting for her, Jim ran down 
the steps and hurried around the corner. 

Nannie watched him wonderingly till he was 
out of sight, and then she walked quickly home. 
Who was it that took the money ? Could it 
have been Jim himself ? The tears came to her 
eyes. Poor Jim, he was ill; he was going 
away ; he had no mother nor sister, and he per- 
haps had done that wicked thing of which Lynn 
was accused. She felt very sorry for him, and 
strange to say had no feeling of resentment 
against him, even when she decided that he 
might have taken the money. She wished that 


2c6 


Little Sister Anne 


she had begged him to go at once to tell her 
father. Perhaps he would and then soon Lynn 
could come home. She was so glad when she 
thought of this that she went singing into the 
house. 

“ You are very happy to-day, little daughter,” 
said her mother, as the child came up the stairs. 
“You are late from school. Were you with 
Jennie, or have you been to call upon your other 
playmate. Miss Maria ? ” 

Nannie laughed. “ No, I haven’t been to call 
on her, but I must go this very afternoon, for 
I’ve something to tell her. O mamma, what 
do you think ? I saw Jim, and, oh, mamma, he 
didn’t, Biggy didn’t, take that money. Jim says 
so. He says he will tell father who took it and 
then we can have Biggy home again. Aren’t 
you so happy, oh, aren’t you, mamma ? ” 

“ Stop, daughter ; I don’t quite understand. 
Come here and tell me exactly what you 
mean.” 

Nannie settled herself in her mother’s lap and 
poured forth her tale. Her mother listened at- 
tentively and at the end she clasped Nannie very 
close. “ Dear child, your faith has been justified. 


Poor Jim 207 

Oh, my poor, dear boy, why did you have to 
suffer for another’s fault ? ” 

“ Mamma,” said !N’annie, “ do you think it was 
Jim that did it ? ” 

‘‘ I am afraid so, Nannie.” 

“ Poor, poor Jim. Mamma, he is going away 
and we may never see him again. Oh, mamma, 
don’t you hope he will tell papa right away ? ” 
Then as she remembered the punishment that is 
dealt out to those who commit crime, she looked 
distressed. “Mamma,” she said in an awed 
whisper, “ do you think papa will put him in 
jail ? ” 

“ 0 Nannie, I don’t know, I don’t know.” 

“ I shall ask him not to.” 

“ But if he is guilty, he should be punished.” 

“Never mind, he saved Louie, and he hasn’t 
any mother and sisters, and his father just lets 
him run wild. How can he be good? I am 
going to watch for papa, for maybe he will come 
early.” She stood where she could look down 
the street, and it was not very long before she 
saw her father hurrying along. She could not 
resist the temptation to lean out, and just as he 
was below her she called : “Did you see Jim?” 


2o8 


Little Sister Anne 


He glanced up and nodded, yes. He did, he 
did, mamma. Oh, I can’t wait. Let me hear it 
all. Mayn’t I stay ? ” 

Mrs. Hollis stooped and kissed the eager face. 
“ If it is right for you to stay, you shall.” 

‘‘ Louise, Louise, where are you ? ” called Mr. 
Hollis, as he came briskly up the steps. 

“ Here,” said his wife, stepping to the door. 
Nannie stood waiting for what should come next. 
‘‘ What news have you, dear ? ” asked Mrs. Hollis 
anxiously. 

“ Good news ! Good news I ” he cried, taking 
her hand. “ Our boy is better than merely hon- 
orable, he is brave and loyal, bless him. I must 
go and bring him home at once. You can tell 
me now where he is, Louise. I hope it is not far 
away.” 

“ Only a little beyond Forest Spring. Nannie 
has been there. She can tell you all about it.” 

“ Good ; then we can get him here before night. 
I must go and ask his pardon for doubting him. 
How could we all have been mistaken ?” 

“We were not all mistaken,” said Mrs. Hollis, 
drawing Nannie very near to her. “ This dear 
child never doubted for one minute. Her faith 


Poor Jim 209 

and trust have been absolute. Do you know 
what she has been doing ? She has been working 
to help pay off her brother’s debt. Has any one 
else been ready to make the sacrifice for love’s 
sake ? She shall stay and hear the story, shall 
she not ? I am sure she deserves it.” 

Her father smiled at Hannie and took her on 
his knee. “ It is a pitiful story for poor Jim 
Mason,” he said. Looking at it from a strictly 
moral standpoint, we were right to suspect Lynn 
because of the company he kept ; nevertheless, I 
am sorry for poor Jim, happily as it has turned 
out for us. It seems that seeing Lynn enter the 
oflSce, Jim followed him to ask him to go some- 
where with him that evening. While Lynn was 
hunting for his roll of films, Jim spied the money 
on the desk which Lynn had thrown open in 
making his search. One bill stuck out farther 
than the rest, and the temptation was too great ; 
so when Lynn’s back was turned Jim drew the 
bill out and slipped it into his pocket. Lynn 
must have suspected when I charged him with 
the theft, but he bore the suspicion himself rather 
than have his friend suffer. I cannot say that I 
think he did right, for it was his duty to prevent 


210 Little Sister Anne 

my losing the money, but his motives were all 
right.” 

“I am sure of that,” said Mrs. Hollis. “I 
think it was really noble of him.” 

“ I think the reason why he didn’t tell,” said 
Hannie, who had been listening with all her 
ears, “was because Jim saved Louie from the 
bull and Biggy couldn’t bear to tell on him, for 
he thought it was so fine of Jim to put himself 
in danger for Louie when she had been so mean 
to him.” 

“ That is true,” said Mr. Hollis, thoughtfully. 
“ I had almost forgotten that. Yes, that puts the 
matter in a new light, and Lynn has shown a 
finer spirit than I supposed. I am prouder of 
my boy to-day than I have ever been in my life. 
I must see Jim again and remind him of that ob- 
ligation. We are in his debt for a greater 
amount than money could represent, for Louie 
was in great danger. Of course, that does not 
make Jim’s crime any the less, but it gives us an 
excuse to be lenient with him. He insists that he 
will repay the money if I do not prosecute him 
and I believe he will, if his health permits. Poor 
lad. I did not hold out much hope to him, for I 


Poor Jim 211 

was indignant to think that my son should be 
made the scapegoat.” 

“ Jim has never had half a chance,” said Mrs. 
Hollis. “With no mother nor sisters, and a 
father whose whole thought is to make money, 
the boy has not had the best of influences. There 
is much good in him. His talk with Hannie and 
his going to you with his confession prove that.” 

“ He was very straightforward,” said Mr. Hol- 
lis, “ and did not attempt to make any excuses. 
I think it was a relief to him to make a clean 
breast of it. Poor fellow, Ave must not let him 
go without seeing him again. Can you hurry up 
dinner, my dear ? If I am to catch that train for 
Forest Spring I have no time to spare. What is 
it, Hannie ? I have seen a question in your eyes 
for some time.” 

“ Oh, if I could ? If you only would take me 
with you, papa. It is Friday and I haven’t any 
lessons to study.” 

“ Why ” He looked at his wife. 

“Don’t you think she deserves to go?” said 
Mrs. Hollis smiling down at Nannie. 

“ I don’t know but she does. She may go if 
you say so.” 


212 


Little Sister Anne 


“ Hurry then, daughter, and get ready,’ ' her 
mother told her. “ Get Louise to see that you 
are all in order while I go and see that dinner is 
served a little earlier then usual.” 

Hannie danced out of the room, wild with de- 
light. It was a privilege to go anywhere with 
her father, and the greatest one on this special 
occasion when such an important errand took 
them away. She chattered as fast as her tongue 
could run while Louie fastened her frock and 
tied her ribbons, for Louie had to be told the 
whole matter and was curious and interested 
enough to ask many questions. But though she 
was not very hard on Jim she was disposed to be 
less tender-hearted than Hannie. 

What did I tell you ? ” she said. “ I knew 
he’d be Lynn’s destruction.” 

‘‘ But he hasn’t been,” replied Hannie looking 
puzzled. “ Lynn isn’t destroyed.” 

“Oh well, goosey, you know what I mean.” 
Hannie didn’t know, but she held her peace and 
allowed Louie to put the finishing touches to her 
toilet. 

“ I wish I had time to go and tell Miss Maria,” 
she said to herself as she was going down to din- 


Poor Jim 213 

ner, “ but I’ll go the very minute we get back. 
Oh, me ! how lovely it will be to have Biggy 
back again.” 

Her father was in high spirits, though really 
so from excitement and nervousness. He was 
more impatient than Hannie had ever seen him, 
for he walked the platform restlessly while they 
were waiting for their train, and urged on the 
horses the}^ hired to take them to the farm. 
Hannie stood up so as to be able to catch the first 
glimpse of her brother when they drove in at the 
gate of the farm. There he was ; there was no 
mistaking him this time under his big hat. 
“ There he is ! There he is ! ” JSTannie cried out, 
and Mr. Hollis looked around sharply. 

At the sound of wheels Lynn turned his head. 
Mr. Hollis pulled up the horses with a jerk and 
Lynn left the corn-field to come toward them. 
He paused suddenly when he saw who it was, 
but Hannie cried out: ‘‘0 Biggy, Biggy, 
we’ve come to take you home.” 

Lynn came up to the side of the surrey. His 
father leaned over and held out his hand. “ My 
boy,” he said, “ I’ve come for you. Can you go 
home with us ? ” 


214 


Little Sister Anne 


Lynn looked anxious. “ I hope no one is ill,” 
he said. “ Mother is well ? ” 

“No one is ill. I have simply come for 
you.” 

“ I shall have to ask Mr. Tubbs first,” said 
Lynn gravely, and I think I ought to finish my 
work here first, sir.” 

There was a moment of embarrassed pause 
then Mr. Hollis said : “ We know the truth, my 

son, and I ask your pardon for suspecting you.” 

Lynn looked up with a glad light in his eyes. 
“ You know all ? ” 

“Yes, we know. Jim told,” said Nannie. 
And her father allowed her to go on with the 
story. 

“ Poor old Jim,” was Lynn’s comment. “ I 
didn’t know for certain that he had taken the 
money, though of course I suspected.” 

“ And allowed yourself to be made the suf- 
ferer,” Mr. Hollis added. 

“ I hadn’t any proof,” said Lynn slowly, “ and 
I knew how hard it was myself to be suspected 
unjustly.” 

Mr. Hollis looked very grave. “ Yes, I cannot 
make up to you for that, Nannie is the only one 


Poor Jim 215 

who has a perfectly clear conscience on that score. 
Still I think I was justified through knowing the 
company you kept.” 

The expression on Lynn’s face was very tender 
as he lifted Nannie down. “Dear little sister 
Anne,” he whispered. 

Nannie put her arms around his neck. “O 
Biggy,” she whispered back, “I’m so glad.” 

“ So am I.” 

“ Y ou’ll go back with us ? ” 

“ I think I’d better wait till to-morrow ; it isn’t 
just right to leave before I have finished my 
day’s work. I’ll see Mr. Tubbs and then come 
back and tell you.” He was gone a few minutes, 
and came back with the word that, though Mr. 
Tubbs consented to his going, he himself did 
not think it fair to leave on so short a notice, and 
before his daily tasks were finished. “ I’ll come 
by the first train to-morrow,” he told his father. 
There was a new dignity and a decision in his 
manner which impressed his father, and though 
he was disappointed he was obliged to give up 
his plan of taking his son home with him. As 
there was not more than time to make the last 
train Mr. Hollis did not tarry, but drove back 


2 i 6 Little Sister Anne 

without making more than a short call at the 
house. 

“After all, we are not going back in triumph, 
are we, IN'an?” said her father. “I’m glad I 
took you with me, otherwise I should have had 
no company at all on the way.” 

“ I’m glad, too, for it was nice to be the one to 
tell Biggy, and it will not seem so long to wait 
now that I have seen him.” They arrived home 
about dusk, and though Mrs. Hollis was sorry 
not to be able to welcome Lynn that day, his 
coming was so near that it did not matter so 
much. 



CHAPTER XII 
Lynn's Home-Coming 



CHAPTER XII 
Lynnes Home-Coming 

Nannie did not tarry long in carrying out 
her intention of telling Miss Maria all about the 
way things had turned out ; and as soon as supper 
was over she went at once to lift the brass 
knocker of the big green door. Miss Maria her- 
self came to let her in. “ Well, well, little girl,” 
she said, “ I’ve been wondering what had become 
of you. I’ve still some darning to be done.” 

“ Oh, but you see I have so little time now that 
school has begun, and oh. Aunt Maria, Biggy is 
coming home to-morrow. Think of it I To- 
morrow. Papa and I went for him this after- 
noon, but he can’t come till morning.” 

“ Then he’s earned his fifty dollars, has he ? ” 

“No; but papa found out who it was that 
took the money, and it wasn’t Biggy, as we 
always knew.” 

“ Yes, as we always knew.” Miss Maria 
smiled. “ And who was it ? ” 


220 


Little Sister Anne 


“ You won’t tell ? ” 

“ Not I. If there is one thing Maria Marvin 
knows how to do, it is to keep her mouth shut 
when there is occasion for it.” 

“Well, then, it was Jim, and he’s ill and is 
going to California, or somewhere, and isn’t ever 
coming back again.” 

“ Dear, dear, you don’t tell me. Well, prob- 
ably that is the best thing that could be done, 
for he’d never be trusted again if it was found 
out. Going away is all that’s left to any one 
who has done a thing like that. Mercy, what 
did he do it for, I’d like to know ? His father is 
well off.” 

“ Oh, but he is so mean and skimps Jim, and 
Jim saw the money and had a chance to slip it 
out without Biggy’s seeing him. Nobody knows 
it but just ourselves, and he is going to pay it 
back. He’s awfully sorry he took it.” 

“ Let us hope he is, and that he is sorry enough 
not to yield to temptation again. If it had been 
some men from whom he had taken it, he would 
have been in jail by this time. Yes, the best 
thing for him is to go away and try to turn over 
a new leaf. So Lynn comes home to-morrow ? ” 


221 


Lynnes Home-Coming 

“ Yes, Aunt Maria. He would have come to- 
day, but he thought he ought to stay and finish 
up his work.” 

Miss Maria nodded her head approvingly. 
She liked that kind of boy. “ You must bring 
him here as soon as you can,” she said. “ I want 
to hear what he has to say about the farm.” 

“ He’ll want to come, I know. He likes the 
farm.” 

“ And will there be any more darning lessons ? ” 

Hannie looked doubtful. “ You see I haven’t 
much time to play,” she began. 

Miss Maria laughed. “ I see. Well, my dear, 
you were very faithful while there was need for 
it, and I could hardly expect a little girl like you 
to come here day after day to sit and sew with a 
sober body like me, just for the love of it.” 

“ Oh, but I love to come if I don’t have to 
darn. Only you see at home there are the dolls, 
and Liz Bess, and Jennie, and the garden.” 

‘‘ And haven’t I a garden ? Why not bring 
them all here ? You can have a corner to your- 
selves, and I will see what can be done to make 
it more attractive.” 

Nannie promised that she would come at least 


222 


Little Sister Anne 


once a week, and then she went home happy in 
the thought that the morning would bring her 
brother. He appeared while the family were at 
breakfast, having taken the first train he could 
get. Hannie spied him before any one else, but 
his mother was the first to take him in her arms. 
You would have supposed he had been away 
years by the fuss that was made over him. He 
had grown taller and his outdoor life had made 
him sunburnt and brawny, “ a regular farmer,” 
he declared. 

After breakfast he took a roll of bills from his 
pocket and handed them to his father. 

“ What’s this ? ” asked Mr. Hollis. 

“ Thirty dollars of the money,” said Lynn. 

Mr. Hollis promptly handed it back again. 
“ You don’t suppose I expect you to make that 
good, Lynn,” he said, flushing up. 

“ Why certainly. It was my fault in a 
measure, and this is good honest money, earned 
literally by the sweat of my brow.” 

“ Honest money, indeed, and not to be paid for 
a dishonest act. Ho, no, my bo}^, keep it, and if 
I must lose the money, I have gained what is 
worth more; confidence in the manliness, the 


Lynn Home- Coming 2 23 

generosity, the integrity, of my son. Nothing 
could persuade me to doubt you again. No, no, 
I could not touch a penny of that money you 
have so hardly earned.” 

So Lynn took the money. “My,” he said, 
“ what shall I do with it ? I never had so much 
before. I shan’t need yours now, Nan, and I 
think you ought to go halves with me on this. 
You not only helped me to earn it, but you 
helped me in other ways.” 

But she shook her head. “No, no, Biggy; 
it’s all yours. You worked for it.” 

“But you will have to take back what you 
gave me from your own earnings, and you shall 
have something fine besides. What would you 
like best to have in all the world that, say, ten 
dollars could buy ? ” 

“Would it buy a cabinet like Aunt Maria’s, 
the one she keeps her shells in ? ” 

“Why,” said Louie, “what in the world do 
you want such a thing for ? ” 

“ To keep my shells in when I get them.” 

“ When you get them ? ” 

“Yes. Aunt Maria is going to leave hers to 
me in her will.” 


224 


Little Sister Anne 


Every one laughed at this taking of time by 
the forelock, and Lynn declared that she should 
have her cabinet if it were possible to find one. 
“ Where did Miss Maria get it ? ” he asked, 

“Oh, it was her grandfather’s,” Nannie told 
him. Then every one laughed again, though she 
couldn’t see why. 

“ I am afraid you have undertaken a difficult 
task, Lynn,” said Mr. Hollis, “ and that Nannie 
will be a long time in seeing the accomplishment 
of her wish. A bird in the hand is worth two 
in the bush. Nan, and if I were you I’d speak for 
something easier, that you are likely to get within 
twenty-four hours.” 

“Yes, you’d better speak quickly for it. Nan, be- 
fore the money is gone,” put in Louie. 

“Then,” said Nannie, folding her hands, “I 
know what I’d like : a big box of candy like Mr. 
Abbott sent Louie.” 

Then the laugh was on Louie, who blushed and 
looked confused. 

“You shall have it,” cried Lynn, “ and wouldn’t 
you like some flowers, too? We’ll do this thing 
up handsomely, Anne, while we are about it.” 

“ Oh, could I have flowers, too ? In a box 


Lynnes Home-Coming 225 

with your card in it, the way Louie gets them ? 
And won’t you send them to me and not bring 
them, so Maggie can come in and say : ‘ The 
florist’s boy brought this for you, Miss Nannie ’ ? ” 

“ It shall be done just that way,” cried Lynn, 
“ card and all ; and Maggie,” turning to the 
maid, “ be sure you say it just as Miss Nannie 
wishes to have you. I’ll send the candy, too. 
Nan, if you’d rather.” 

“Oh, yes, I should much rather, and then I 
should feel just like a grown-up young lady, only 
I wouldn’t take the card and hide it and kiss it 
afterward. I’d kiss it before everybody.” At 
which remark Louie’s confusion was more than 
she could endure, and she precipitately left the 
room amid bursts of laughter. 

The morning was not over before a big box of 
candy was delivered at the door, and this was 
followed by a box of roses. Both of these were 
addressed to Miss Anne Hollis. Maggie brought 
them up-stairs and repeated the words just as 
Nannie had said. Nannie gave a little gleeful 
laugh, and kicked up her heels as she sat in the 
rocking-chair. “ Oh,” she laughed, “ I feel just 
like a young lady.” 


226 


Little Sister Anne 


“You don’t act like one, then,” said Louie, 
still a little sore over Nannie’s remarks at the 
breakfast table. Yet she did not refuse two of 
her longest skirts to Nannie and Jennie when 
they wanted to dress up and pretend to be grown- 
ups. 

“ Wouldn’t it be fun to go up to Aunt Maria’s 
looking this way ? ” said Nannie, flinging the 
train of her skirt gracefully around her feet. 

“ Oh, would you dare ? ” said Jennie. 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ Oh, Aunt Maria would think we were crazy.” 

“No she wouldn’t. She used to dress up in 
her sister’s things when she was a little girl ; she 
told me so. I think she’ll laugh, and I’m going 
anyhow. I want to take her one of my big 
roses and some candy. I’ll find a little box 
now.” 

Such familiarity with her Aunt Maria was be- 
yond Jennie’s comprehension. She was not able 
to understand at any time why Nannie made 
such a fuss over the old lady, but there were sev- 
eral things she did not comprehend. Why should 
they all make such a fuss over Lynn’s home- 
coming, and why should Lynn send Nannie these 


Lynnes Home-Coming 227 

things when it was not her birthday, neither was 
it Christmas ? But then JSTannie was rather an 
incomprehensible girl sometimes, who did queer 
things, like spending hours darning table-linen to 
earn money. Jennie was quite sure that she 
never could be persuaded to spend her time that 
way, no, not even for the missionaries. Nannie 
had never told her what she was going to do 
with the money, but she supposed it was for some 
charity. 

However, she concluded to go with her friend 
to Aunt Maria’s, though she would never have 
dared to go alone dressed up in a trailing gown, 
wearing a big flowered hat, a dotted veil, and 
white kid gloves. It wasn’t bad at all when 
Nannie was with her, for when Hagar opened 
the door Nannie asked with the most young- 
ladyish air : “ Is Miss Marvin at home ? ” 

“ Yas, miss,” said Hagar, vainly striving to 
hide a chuckle, and Nannie handed in her card, 
on which she had carefully printed. Miss Anne 
Hollis. 

Miss Maria made her appearance at once, 
and Nannie arose, going forward effusively as 
Miss Maria entered. “So delighted to find 


228 


Little Sister Anne 


you at home,” she said. Then she laughed. 
“Aren’t we funny, Aunt Maria? These are 
Louie’s things. I won’t kiss you through the 
veil, but I have brought you some of my candy 
and one of my roses Biggy sent me. Just think, 
he sent them to me just as if I were a real grown- 
up young lady. It’s awfully good candy. Were 
you lying down? Did we disturb you. Aunt 
Maria ? ” 

“ Not at all,” was the reply. “ Come into the 
sitting-room ; there is some one there you know.” 
They followed her out, their long dresses trailing 
behind them as they sailed through the hall. 
When they reached the room there sat Lynn. 

“ Here are two young ladies, Lynn,” said Miss 
Maria. “Miss Anne Hollis and Miss Jane 
Temple.” 

Lynn had sprung to his feet when he heard the 
swish of skirts, but he laughed when he saw the 
queer little figures before him. Then they all 
had a merry time. Miss Maria brought out the 
raspberry vinegar and cake, and the little girls so 
far forgot their young ladyhood as to be pleased 
to play with Lucretia and Samantha while Lynn 
looked over the shells and was boyishly inter- 


Lynnes Home-Coming 229 

ested in the big sword which Miss Maria’s father 
had carried in the war of 1812, and which occu- 
pied a place of honor over the mantel. 

It was a happy afternoon which Nannie never 
forgot, for it was the last she ever spent with 
Miss Maria. She was glad afterward that she 
had taken the rose and the candy, for Miss Maria 
had been touched by the little attention, and 
when Nannie went away she kissed her more 
than once saying : “ Come again soon, dear 

child ; you are a great pleasure to your Aunt 
Maria.” But the next day Nannie was told that 
Miss Maria was not well and a few days later 
Mrs. Hollis called the child to her and said very 
sadly : “ Miss Maria is not expected to live, 

Nannie.” Then, when the news came that she 
was at rest, no one wept more than Nannie. So 
bitterly did she sob out her grief that Jennie 
wondered. “ She was my aunt,” she said, “ but I 
can’t cry that way, Nannie.” 

I don’t care,” returned Nannie through her 
tears, “I know she wasn’t my own aunt, but I 
loved her, I loved her.” 

To Nannie Miss Maria bequeathed not only the 
shells but the old cabinet and the doll Samantha, 


Little Sister Anne 


230 

while to Jennie was left Lucre tia and all the old- 
fashioned books. After this the two little girls 
once in awhile solemnly took out the dolls and 
played with them in a subdued way, but it 
seemed always as if they should be back again in 
the old house with the green door. 

Jim took his departure for California, but did 
not remain there. A few months later Nannie 
had a letter from him post-marked from some 
town in New Mexico. He wrote that he was 
much better, that he had found employment and 
that he expected very soon to be able to pay back 
the money he had taken. “ I don’t forget you, 
little Nan,” he said, “ and if ever I am a good 
man it will be because you were so sweet to me 
and because Lynn showed me how fine it is to be 
true, and loyal, and faithful even to as unworthy 
a friend as I was.” 

Lynn went back to school and worked so hard 
that he won a scholarship and the next year went 
to college. Nannie missed him sadly but as she 
was getting more and more interested in her 
studies, and was beginning to talk of going to 
college herself, she had little time to spend in 
moping. Her only regret was that her brother 


Lynnes Home-Coming 231 

would graduate before she could enter even the 
freshman class. 

“ It would be so fine to go to the same college 
as Biggy,” she said to Louie, but her sister 
laughed at such a notion. “ I don’t see why you 
want to go to college at all,” she said. 
didn’t.” 

“ I know,” said Nannie, “ but then Biggy 
hadn’t gone,” an answer over which Louie puz- 
zled for a few moments and then gave up 
thinking about for something more to her mind, 
which had to do with a certain card that al- 
ways appeared with the roses now beginning to 
come very often. 

From certain whispered remarks Nannie sus- 
pects there will be a wedding in the family be- 
fore Lynn has become a junior, and she is won- 
dering how it will seem to be called Miss Hollis. 

I think I won’t get married,” she surprised 
her mother one day by saying. 

“Why not, daughter?” asked Mrs. Hollis, 
amused at her remark. 

“ Oh, because, I think I’d like to live as Aunt 
Maria did, and keep house for Biggy, and then I 
could have Louie’s children come to see me. 


Little Sister Anne 


232 

Would they be named Abbott, mamma ? Anne 
Abbott one of them might be named, and Louie 
will be Mrs. Abbott.” 

Then Mrs. Hollis laughed and Louie said Nan- 
nie didn’t know what she was talking about. 
She might be named Smith or Jones for all she 
knew. 

“ I don’t believe it,” Nannie maintained. 
“Why do you scribble Louise Abbott all over 
the backs of envelopes if you don’t expect it to 
be your name ? ” 

Then Louie laughed. “ You’re a perfect little 
Paul Pry,” she said. 

“I don’t Paul Pry,” retorted Nannie. “You 
asked me to empty your waste-basket and how 
could I help seeing ? ” 

“ I’m afraid you can’t deny it on such evidence 
as that, Louie,” spoke up Mrs. Hollis. And Nan- 
nie was quite sure her conjectures were right 
when Mr. Abbott came to dinner the next Sun- 
day and called her “little sister Anne.” 

Liz Bess gave up hunting for gnomes, and in- 
sisted upon being called Elizabeth when her frocks 
had to be lengthened every few weeks. She felt 
that she was quite old enough to be invited to 


Lynn's Home-Coming 233 

the party Jennie had on her thirteenth birthday, 
but at that superior age Jennie felt that Liz Bess 
was far too young to be counted among her play- 
mates. However, she sent all her dolls over to 
Liz Bess, saying that she was now too old to play 
with them any more. Nannie secretly regretted 
this, but comforted herself by thinking that she 
could sometimes play with Liz Bess and that the 
dolls would seem like old friends. 

One of her dolls only did Jennie retain, and 
that was Lucre tia. On this thirteenth birthday 
she was laid away in state by Jennie and Nannie. 
But when Nannie went home she gathered all 
her own dolls about her and sat looking into 
their smiling faces and staring eyes. “ I’m not 
going to give you up, dears ; you needn’t think I 
am going to do it yet,” she said to them. “ I’ll 
not do it when I am thirteen, and I shall love 
you when I am sixteen, even if I give you to Liz 
Bess before then. I’ll sew for you just the same. 
As for you, Samantha, I shall never give you 
away, you dear old stiff-bodied thing. I shall 
keep you forever and ever, and I am going to get 
Biggy to buy Miss Maria’s home when he is rich 
enough, and I’ll keep house for him ; then you 


234 


Little Sister Anne 


can live where you have spent almost all your 
life. I’ll have everything just as Aunt Maria 
did, and Anne Abbott can take you to walk in 
the garden and show you the pretty- by-nights.” 

She sat very still building air-castles for quite 
a long time after this speech, then she solemnly 
kissed her dolls and set them a-row on her bed 
that they might watch her dress for Jennie’s 
party. 




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